Alka Damle is a ‘civic goddess’ and change-maker in Goa, writes Zarine Ahmed

 
The ‘dust-buster of Vasco’ is fresh off her latest triumph. Before the whimsical monsoon clouds roll in, she will be distributing 5,000 cloth bags—all handmade from scrap—to help phase out the use of plastic bags at the local vegetable market.

Our change-maker, Alka Damle is a retired college professor in Goa, where for more than 40 years, she has been helping citizens grow a civic conscience, spreading awareness on social issues, working with silvers, and making an all-round difference through her work. From installing garbage bins near vegetable vendors’ stalls to hosting lunch for school children from Pune and talks on investment options for senior citizens, to literally cleaning up and greening derelict hotspots in and around her neighbourhood and reaching out to communities that need her help, this 63 year-old is every bit a patron to the city of Vasco.

Her latest campaign, to encourage citizens to use cloth bags instead of plastic ones, is especially dear to her. She had appealed to hotels in and around Vasco to turn in old bedsheets, staff uniforms and other clothes as raw material. “I also posted appeals on Facebook and WhatsApp and they went viral,” she shares. “So, people from the community came forward with old dupattas, saris and shirts. I engaged local self-help groups to actually make the bags, which we will now distribute to vegetable vendors free of cost.”

The support Damle has received from the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) means a lot to her. “With Mrs Damle’s initiative, we hope to share our vision of a plastic-free Goa with the local community,” says Angel Fernandes, chief officer, MMC.

It all began when Damle first fell in love with Vasco, where her husband, then a lieutenant in the Indian Navy, was posted in 1974. After many other postings across the country since then, the Damles finally came full circle and settled in this port town after retirement in 2009. But it was earlier, right after her two children got married and settled elsewhere, that Damle actually put herself out there to answer the calling of her beloved Vasco.

Damle’s first big mission was a kindergarten school that she opened for the children of domestic helpers at the naval officers’ residential area in Chicalim, Vasco. Launched with just 40 children in the year 2000, Bal Patshala now has 200 children on its rolls and prepares its young wards for admission to formal school. As soon as the kindergarten was off the ground, she started stitching and computer classes for the naval fraternity, especially for sailors’ wives.

Not one to kick up her heels, Damle soon founded a seniors club called Club 50+ in her neighbourhood. This was the beginning of her ‘army’ of helpers for future projects. With a strength of 30 today, the members meet at least once a month, at either a member’s home, a hotel or a meditation centre in Dabolim near Vasco; Damle ensures the seniors have fun as well as do their share for society. Recounting one of her early clean-up drives, our crusader says, “Outside a maternity hospital in Vasco, there were massive piles of garbage. When my letters to the MMC requesting them to clear it up went unanswered, we took matters into our own hands.”

Damle and her club hired labourers at their own expense and cleared away the garbage. Then, with the help of a local MLA, they transformed the site into a beautiful fenced area edged with potted plants. Mohini Parulekar, a close aide of Damle and a member of Club 50+, remarks, “She is genuinely concerned about the city’s cleanliness. She is selfless and sincere in the projects she takes up. I am blessed to work with her.”

“Social work is a thankless job; most important, one has to always have sugar in their mouth and ice on their head!” says Damle. “When I go to the council 10 times, I can’t afford to get angry. I have to keep requesting them to get things done all the time.” But she is not easily discouraged. Last year, she set her sights on the area atop Mongor hill, in Mormugao, which was being used as an unofficial dumping ground. When her pleas to government officials for three years went unanswered, she and Club 50+ members hired labourers, gave them masks and gloves, and bought a few thousand rupees worth of plants, all at their own expense.

Next, Damle had planned to cement the area and put up benches and newspaper stands for community use. Two days later, she was shocked to learn that a local councillor had mercilessly uprooted all the plants and thrown them away! “It was all about taking credit. So he, along with a coal mining company, tiled the place, put up benches… everything I had planned. At least the garbage is gone and the community now uses it as a leisure spot.”

Sailesh Kerkar, a resident of Mongor hill, remarks, “What Alka has done to the place is simply commendable. You wouldn’t believe what this place was like. There is a temple close by and every time I used to go there, I used to feel ashamed that the government was so insensitive to this sacred place. Now, thanks to Alka, after prayers, I sit on these benches and enjoy the view from the top of the hill.”

Damle’s engagement with a tree-planting drive at the request of the BITS Pilani College of Engineering near Vasco is a true testament to her patience. “Some years ago, the college had roped me in for a tree planting drive in a barren ground on the airport road, where school competitions and exhibitions are held. We planted 30 trees and put up beautiful hoardings and appealed to the people in the locality to water them.” Sadly, not only did no one from the local community step forward, her requests to the Sea Scan Maritime Academy, an academy for seafarers in Mormugao, went unheeded as did her letter to the Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs in the Goa government. Not even a reply to her letter from the Prime Minister’s Office could drum up any enthusiasm from local civic authorities. “At present, 24 trees are thriving but six died and our Club 50+ plans to replace them this monsoon,” she says.

Damle says that as a social worker, her biggest inspiration has been Baba Amte, whose work with leprosy patients is legendary. As a college student, she had spent hours reading about the great philanthrophist and finally got the opportunity to visit his ashram in Nagpur in 2010. There, she attended a function put up by 140 men and women disabled by leprosy; it left her in tears. “There was this girl who danced so gracefully and, at the end, she left the audience floored by removing her artificial leg,” she says. “I was so moved by the performance that I brought the entire orchestra to Goa.”

Six months after Damle’s Nagpur visit, buses full of these 140 people arrived in Goa and she organised shows at three different places. “Fortunately, I came across some good people. The general manager of the youth hostel helped me accommodate all 140 people under one roof. The Kala Academy and Ravindra Bhavan, where the performances took place, were given to me free. The shows drew a massive response and donations came pouring in from all sides, raising ₹ 14 lakh for Baba Amte’s organisation.”

While in Nagpur, Damle was introduced to Goonj, a non-profit that works in the area of disaster management. “Since 2011, I have been sending clothes, household items, electrical gadgets and rations to them every year. These items are donated by citizens in Goa, where I have raised awareness for the organisation.” To sensitise Goans to the work done by Goonj, Damle had invited its founder and youngest Magsaysay award winner, Anshu Gupta, to speak about its work at four locations in Goa.

Gupta says that at these talks, he had underlined how urban waste can help create a better rural economy and how discarded and underused material in cities, can become a tool for change in rural areas. “Contributions came flooding in and I have since had volunteers from all over Goa, from the Rotary Club, Lion’s Club and many other organisations pitching in. Last year, we had more than four trucks full of clothes that were sent to the Goonj office in Mumbai,” says Gupta, adding that none of this would have been possible without Damle.

Anita Kawlekar of the Nari Shakti Group of Ponda has worked on many projects with Damle over the years, from a clean-up drive at Colva beach last year, to visiting the tribal settlement of Makadmare in Nirankal, not far from Ponda, in 2016, and working towards getting the community basic facilities like electricity, sanitation and water along with Dr Sachin Tendulkar, an agro researcher working with tribals in the area.

“Our group launched in 2014 and since then we have been part of countless drives for various tribes, promoting sanitation and hygiene,” says Kawlekar. “With Damleji, we conducted a month-long project for the Vanarmare (Makadmare) tribe, who have been living in the Goan forests for the past three generations with no facilities. We collected clothes, utensils and anything that volunteers could offer.”

Damle attributes the roots of her passion for social work to her parents, who taught her and her siblings that whatever one is, one owes it to society. “Moreover, many social activists used to visit our school in Mumbai, where I grew up. This simply underscored the message my parents had instilled in us.”

We wish Damle all the luck she needs with her latest campaign, to replace plastic bags with cloth bags at the Vasco vegetable market. What does she intend to do next? “I have a few new projects in my mind already, wet garbage management being one of them. Whenever somebody needs me, I am there.”

Photo: Subash Rao
Featured in Harmony — Celebrate Age Magazine
July 2018