The Bakers and Confectioners Association has made a series of demands before the government, and the demands are justifiable to a greater extent.
First of all, the material prices for bread or pao have sky-rocketed, and besides that, it has become very difficult to find labour.
If the workers are found, their rates have become absolutely high.
Mind you, not many Goans want to work in a bakery, and hence the traditional bakers are forced to employ migrant workers. So much so that the poders we found on bicycles early morning in the yesteryears have been replaced by non-Goans, who neither know Konkani nor English and sometimes not even Hindi.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
Blame it on inflation, rising petrol and diesel prices or costly labour; Goans are literally struggling to eat their staple diet of fish and pao.
Not just that the normal travel of Goans has also become dearer with the rise in petrol prices.
As it is the fish and the petrol had become unaffordable for Goans with the rise in prices. Petrol has touched Rs 100 mark while the fish prices have almost slipped out of the hands of an average Goans.
The normal Kingfish, loved by every Goan today, costs around Rs 750/ kg.
As if these price rises were not enough, the increase in traditional pao was another shocker for the common man.
The Bakers and Confectioners Association has made a series of demands before the government, and the demands are justifiable to a greater extent.
First of all, the material prices for bread or pao have sky-rocketed, and besides that, it has become very difficult to find labour.
If the workers are found, their rates have become absolutely high.
Mind you, not many Goans want to work in a bakery, and hence the traditional bakers are forced to employ migrant workers. So much so that the poders we found on bicycles early morning in the yesteryears have been replaced by non-Goans, who neither know Konkani nor English and sometimes not even Hindi.
Slowly but steadily, the bakery business is moving into the hands of non-Goans.
To make matters worse, instead of helping local bakers, the State government is allowing the traders from outside the state to bring their bread for sale in the market.
To save the traditional business of Goans, the State government must look into the demands of the association very seriously.
While the price rise is justifiable from the baker’s end, the common man is the one who would feel the pinch. Hence, it is essential that the government chip in with subsidies and grants to the traditional bakers. The government can very well subsidise the purchase of raw materials.
While the government supports all businesses like taxi owners, motorcycle pilots, autorickshaws, traditional fishermen, mining dependents, it should also consider support to bakers.
While we support the rise in a pao, the bakers also need to consider that the size of pao is shrinking every day.
While granting the subsidy, the government has to make sure that the size and weight of the pao remain intact. There will be no difference between the pao from Goa and pao from Bangalore or Mumbai, which neither has taste nor a good size.
Like the feni and cashew nuts, the government must also try to get gio-tagging for the Goan pao. So that the bakers can export it outside and also the business becomes viable financially.
