{"id":103218,"date":"2025-06-03T22:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/?p=103218"},"modified":"2025-06-03T22:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T17:13:08","slug":"goan-youth-need-to-take-charge-defend-their-homeland-activist-shohail-fernandes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/?p=103218","title":{"rendered":"Goan Youth need to take charge; defend their homeland : Activist Shohail Fernandes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Goa Khabar : Goan youth need to be vigilant and serve as a bulwark against the abuse of land resources in the state and keep track of dubious projects being pushed through village panchayats as well, according to Shohail Furtado, a young social activist, who was speaking recently at the Museum of Goa as part of the latter\u2019s MOG Sundays series.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Varca-based Furtado\u2019s talk session,\u00a0\u2018Uttai Re Goemkarano\u2019, was a call to action urging Goan youth to challenge the unchecked spread of megaprojects in Goa that threaten the state\u2019s villages and environment. \u201cIf you start following the paper trail, you unfold a series of internal settings. It\u2019s a castle of cards, and it can come tumbling down. But who is going to do it? The youth need to engage in their gram sabhas and panchayats,\u201d said Shohail Furtado. \u201cCorruption is present even in the grassroots of an administration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Using data, visuals and direct action like beach clean-ups, surveys, and petitions, Furtado also spoke about his experiences with youth and locals resisting on-ground injustices, citing the course of his well-known campaign highlighting the pollution of the Varca creek, in south Goa.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Questioning permissions from grassroots bodies like village panchayats for large-scale multi-dwelling projects in the guise of \u201cdevelopment,\u201d Furtado said: \u201cWe\u2019re told we need more tourism, more housing, more growth. But who is it really for, and who pays the price?\u201d<\/p>\n

Shohail said that the youth in Goa may have been incorrectly conditioned into thinking their voice lacks power and that they should instead focus on careers and personal development. \u201cWhy do political parties have youth wings? They know that the minute the youth mobilise is the day they cannot do anything, because the power lies in the hands of the youth,\u201d he emphasised.<\/p>\n

Furtado said it was time for the youth to take the lead to preserve Goa\u2019s identity and ecological balance, but noted a lack of awareness among his contemporaries. \u201cI noticed a gap\u2014our youth were aware, but not deeply enough. They weren\u2019t fully engaged with what is being destroyed in our state,\u201d Furtado said. \u201cMy parents\u2019 generation is still holding fort and fighting. But they\u2019re not doing it for themselves; they\u2019re doing it for us. Because we are the ones who will inherit a ruined Goa, not them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The session, and the interactive discussion that followed Furtado\u2019s talk, explored the possibility of networking among like-minded non-governmental organisations working in tune with each other for the betterment of the state, and included a call for young people to become more proactive in their local governing bodies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Goa Khabar : Goan youth need to be vigilant and serve as a bulwark against the abuse of land resources in the state and keep track of dubious projects being pushed through village panchayats as well, according to Shohail Furtado, a young social activist, who was speaking recently at the Museum of Goa as part […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":103219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,6],"tags":[3794],"class_list":["post-103218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-155","category-6","tag-featured"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=103218"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103220,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103218\/revisions\/103220"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/103219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=103218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=103218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=103218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}