eTN Asia, 9-27-2006
The pristine beaches of Goa will have additional charm soon.
The popular tourist destination in the western region of India is set to hire women to patrol its white-sand beaches as lifeguards for the first time. Goa will train women and men from the local fishing community to serve as lifeguards.
Women in India going out to beaches in swimsuit is surely not a common sight. But this all is set to change, at least in the case women being deployed for security at the beaches in Goa.
According to the National daily The Times of India, the women will wear one-piece bathing suits.
“The women lifeguards would be wearing swimming costumes, but they’ll be decently dressed,” Fatima D’sa, a state tourism official reportedly said. “These are not women anyone can misbehave with.”
The development comes at a stage when more than 200 people have drowned in the sea off Goa’s beaches over the past four years. This year alone, 45 people drowned, six of them on a single day last month, it is being said. More than two million tourists throng its beaches each year. The state tourism says the women protecting Goa’s beaches are strong enough -- after all, they’re from the local fishing community and regularly pull heavy boats and nets.
