Why Indian guests are told to stay off Goan shacks

Beach shack owners in Goa have justified their discriminatory behaviour against the Indian tourists as "the way out to save beachwear-clad foreign guests from lusty gazes".

Operators of these beach-side palm-thatched eateries are baffled by the fresh guidelines issued by state tourism department warning them against racial discrimination.

"Some Indian guests tease the foreign tourists in the shacks. There are few people who get crazy seeing a woman in the bikini," Shack Owners Welfare Society, president, Cruz Cardoso said.

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State tourism department director, Swapnil Naik, in the policy guidelines circulated to the beach shacks in the run up to the tourist season has said that the licences of the shacks discriminating the guests would be cancelled.

The state tourism department acted following complaints of racial discrimination against Indians witnessed in many shacks dotting the 105 km long beach belt.

The shacks at Morjim, a beach at the North corner of the state, gained notoriety after they allowed only Russians to dine in their eateries.

Even the menu cards were in Russian and the department received complaints about Indians being shooed away from a few shacks.

"We have decided not to tolerate any discrimination. The shack licences will be suspended immediately, if they are found guilty of the same," Lyndon Monteiro, officer on special duty to state Tourism Ministry, said.

He said the shacks are given licences for serving tourists and it is not specified that they should serve only foreigners. The shack owners, on the other hand, have a different story to tell.

"Many domestic travelers are devoid of any social manners. We have instances of domestic tourists trying to hug foreigners who are in bikinis. That forces us to be choosy about admitting the customers," Cardoso, who himself runs a shack at Cavelossim beach in south Goa, said.

He also feared that the new guidelines can be misused against the shack owners. "If someone is our enemy, he can complain to the Tourism Department that he was not allowed to enter in the shack. We would lose the licence," Cardoso said.

The shacks, which are 300-odd in number across the beach belt, feels that the department itself is discriminating between shacks and hotels.

"When five star hotels have a right of admission reserved with them why can't shacks have it? The guidelines should be unanimous. Why such a discrimination?" Cardoso said. The state Tourism Ministry is targeting the shack owners, he alleged.

Goa, a destination for 24 lakh tourists including four lakh foreigners a year, will usher in the tourist season from mid-September.