Panaji: Goa Forward Party’s Goa Women Forward was officially launched on Sunday with the announcement of State level committee and top level officials of both the districts.
Advocate Ashma Sayed has been nominated as the Chief of the GWF with Sonia Fernandes as its Vice President and Sampada Pednekar as its General Secretary.
Party’s Vice President Renuka Da Silva addressed the press conference along with the members to announce the committee.
Clara Rodrigues is the Joint Secretary of the State level committee and Dr Lorraine Dias is a treasurer.
Shruthi Deuskar is the North District Persident and Bindiya Gadekar is District Vice President. Gauri Gadekar is North District General Secretary.
Poonam Desai is South District President, Samptika Gaonkar is South District Vice President and Ibtisam Shaikh is South District General Secretary.
The Executive Committee includes Shazia Karol, Resha Dabholkar, Gunwanti Pednekar, Bai Infra Vas, Gulabsha Sheikh, Suleksha Kalangutkar, Samina Khan, Mamta Chaudhary, Unnati Padolkar, Sazeeda Shah, Subhangi Naik and Razia Karol.
The GWF’s Block Presidents include Adv Reshal Harmalkar (Siolim), Reshma Kalangutkar (Saligao), Maria Coelho (Fatorda), Sheela Ghatwal (Mayem), Divya Prabhu (Ponda) and Najuka Naik (Cuncolim).
Announcing the committee, Dr Da Silva said that party president Vijai Sardesai believes in empowerment of women.
“We may be a small party but certainly not soft. Always remember, when woman stands for herself, she stands for all the women around her,” she said.
“We as Goa Forward Party will stand for all the women of Goa and take them forward,” she said.
Newly appointed GWF President Ashma Shaikh said “we have constituted Goa Women Forward team by working on it for last 2-3 months. We have finalized the list today,” she said.
“There is need to take over Goan politics by women. Goa women forward will work towards taking women forward. We will also empower them to be in the politics. Many political parties use women only for the rallies,” she said.
“Our President Vijai Sardesai has always empowered women in the politics. He has favoured how to take forward women in the politics,” Shaikh added.
Giving an example, she said our party has given equal position to women. Renuka da Silva is the Chairman of SGPDA, while Babita Angle is the Chairperson of Margao Municipal Council.
“We have youngest woman councilor from Fatorda Pooja Kavlekar. Several other committee members are representatives on various elected bodies,” she added.
“We want that Goan women should take control of the state politics. We want to work in Goa and women should be the decision making,” she said.
“Goa women forward’s executive committee aims to take women forward,” she said.
“Our president Vijai Sardesai has been working for women. To begin from Fatorda, where he has helped women to become economically independent,” Shaikh said.
“We have groups like Women of Fatorda, which is a small scale industry. We want every section to be a part of Goa Forward family. I call it as family because we work as a family,” Shaikh added.
She said that the party believes that women should be economically independent. “There are many schemes for women. Giving free doles is not the only need a woman. What we want that woman should be skilled and earn her own livelihood,” she added.
“We want every women from goa to approach us with their problem. We will see that every women is helped,” she said.
On the issue of election tickets for Women, Shaikh said “we have full trust in our party president.”
Responding to a question on the casinos, she said “as a woman president and on behalf of other woman, casino is very much affecting the woman.”
“Our demand as Goa women forward is that casino should be out of Mandovi, they should be removed,” she said.
She also demanded that Goan women are capable to take up the projects like beach cleaning. “The beach cleaning work should be given to the Goan women. I think they will be very happy as it will give them source of income,” she added.
