Goa: Day-1 of survey sees courteous residents, long walks in the sun

TNN | Updated: Apr 14, 2020, 06:28 IST

Many houses had only senior citizens living in them, surveyors said

PANAJI: The first day of the state government’s house-to-house Covid-19 survey was a mixed bag for the government staffers assigned to collect data — while teachers found most citizens cooperating with them, others, in more rural areas, had to battle the scorching summer covering up to 10km by foot.
“No one is refusing to work. The teachers are just afraid for their health and life,” a Ponda-based teacher told TOI. “Now, should these 7,000 teachers remain isolated from their family members for the next 14 days at home? They have been outdoors throughout the day, and will be outside for the next two days too.”
One teacher reported being confronted by a panch in Salcete, who asked to be shown the teachers’ authority letter from the government to carry out the survey. Also in Salcete, another teacher reported having come across a family who had been home quarantined. However, since no marking was done by the government at the residence, the teachers were left exposed to the family members.
“Teachers faced great difficulty carrying out this work in the summer heat,” one said.
“Those allotted rural areas had to walk up to ten kilometers in some cases, as the houses in these areas, though few, are located far apart.”
Another teacher, who was allotted an area in Mormugao, said that they feared for their health as those being surveyed in migrant-dominated areas did not maintain social distancing.
“The migrants were crowding around us, and language too was an issue while communicating with them,” said one surveyor. “There were no security personnel provided for our safety, to help maintain social distancing, or to tackle the crowd if there was a problem. Most families these days have smartphones, they could easily have filled the form online and the survey could have been carried out only in pockets were residents do not have facilities like smartphones or internet connectivity, rather than risking the lives of hundreds of us teachers.”
Teachers also said that in many areas in Goa, there are only elderly residents in the household, with whom it was a challenge to communicate.