Goa needs an image change


Going by the recent headlines and TV coverage, one would think Goa is the "rape capital of India". The impression created is that Goa is a paradise of hedonism, and the epicentre of drugs, that people here spend their days in a haze of frolic and sexual indulgence.

To those who live in Goa, the picture is vastly different. Despite its outward Westernisms, and the hordes of foreign tourists who descend on it, Goa is still very much a god-fearing and law-abiding place. Hindus and Catholics, who mainly live here, have the same traditional virtues as elsewhere in the country.

The image of a permissive society and "easy pickings" on the beach has led to the invasion of Goa by a certain brand of holidaymakers who believe that foreigners are willing prey to sexual advances. This monstrous belief has fuelled the young, prurient Indian male who visits Goa to fulfil his fantasies.

Fundamentally, it is not a matter of poor policing. It has been Goa's ill luck that the recent child molestation case has come close on the heels of another case of rape of a young Russian woman allegedly by a former political aspirant. But to tar the entire state borders on hysteria, not unlike the hysteria generated in the case of Scarlett Keeling by the notorious British tabloids. (Curiously, the case of a young Russian couple brutally murdered on Vagator beach just three months before the Scarlett case received little media coverage.)

The figures of sexually motivated crimes against foreigners speak for themselves. According to British Behaviour Abroad (2008-09), released by UK's Foreign Office, British tourists suffered 57 cases of rape and sexual assault in Spain, 37 in Greece, 36 in Turkey, and 34 in Egypt. The corresponding figure is just three in India. Similar are the statistics for Russian tourists visiting Goa, but the official Russian reaction to the crime has gone overboard.

While the shock and pain of the parents in the recent case of the Russian  child is understandable, can the Russian ambassador explain the stabbings of Indian medical students in his country? Or, of the rise of the Russian mafia and pimps who have found safe havens on the beaches of Morjim in north Goa?

Goa still remains as safe a place as any in India, though it often seems that the popular media is as prurient and thrill-seeking as the criminals themselves. Controversies over Goa become grossly magnified because of its exaggerated glamour quotient.

Manohar Shetty is  a poet, writer and editor of the book Ferry
Crossing: Short Stories from Goa