From Arambol and Pernem in the north to Varca and Cavelossim in the south, between 27 September and 6 October 2026, Goenkars scored the gaon or shar they live in, their own village or town, through four lenses: how Well-Being oriented, how Inclusive, how Sustainable, how Entrepreneurial & Expressive it is. Every dot on this page is one of us, from vaddos big and small. This is a first look at Goa’s WISE report card, in its own words, and the survey is still open.
Act for Goa · Cell Savvy Group · Blue Ribbon Movement · Early findings, October 2026
How WISE is Goa? 2.37 out of 4, so far.
Four lenses, seventeen questions, 38 villages and towns, and the vaddos inside them. Goa’s Inclusive lens is the strongest, carried by how safe people feel and how much they belong. Its Sustainable lens is the weakest, and the single lowest answer in the whole survey is about being ready for floods and climate shocks. Hope, measured on its own, stands at 2.36.
You love this place. Genuinely.
Of everything we measured, the strongest signal was belonging: this village, this vaddo, is mine. And what people love is the land itself, the green, the quiet, the fields, khazans, lakes and beaches, and the people around them: neighbours, family, and the zatras and fests when everyone comes together.
“हो म्हजोच गांव/शार”“This is my own village or town,” as the question put it in Konkani
तुमच्या गांवांत/शारांत तुमकां सगळ्यांत चड कितें आवडटा?
You love it. You fear for it.
70% of us feel we belong here, but only 45% feel hopeful about its future. That gap, between how much people love a place and how sure they are it will last, is the clearest message in this survey. Many answers about what people love were really about what they are losing: the field behind the house, the open ground, the quiet of the vaddo. Two answers name the sarpanch or the panchayat directly, for approving construction faster than the village can take it.
Goa is losing its cool.
People connect the heat to what is disappearing: trees cleared for buildings, and new construction not designed for the climate. Air is still Goa’s relative strength (60% say it is clean), but places to gather, a maidan or a playground within walking distance, are scarce, and 62% do not know where to turn for mental-health help.
Goa’s Well-Being score: 2.30 out of 4, from the four questions above.
People feel safe here, and they belong.
This is Goa’s strongest lens, carried by people and trust rather than systems: friendly, helpful neighbours in the vaddo. The weak spot is the street itself: 51% say roads and public places are hard to use for seniors, children and people with disabilities.
Goa’s Inclusive score: 2.82 out of 4, from the four questions above.
Goa is not ready for the next flood, and it knows it.
This is Goa’s weakest lens, and also the one Goans care about most: when asked what matters most, 37 of 79 chose Sustainability, more than any other lens. Waste, water and green habits all score low, the same systems every monsoon puts to the test. What people ask for and what they lack are the same thing.
Goa’s Sustainable score: 1.96 out of 4, from the four questions above.
The will to build is here. The places to learn are not.
Young people and women can start small businesses here, say 60%. But places to learn are thin, and voice is weak: only 43% feel citizens’ opinions are taken seriously, whether through the panchayat, the municipal office or local leaders.
Goa’s Entrepreneurial & Expression score: 2.39 out of 4, from the four questions above.
Clear the garbage. Stop the concrete.
Two open questions: what civic problems do you notice, and if you had one superpower, what would you improve? Garbage dominates both: by the roadside, in open drains, and spilling into fields and rivers. But the answer that is most distinctly Goan is the second one: control the construction that is changing villages faster than anyone planned for.
तुमच्या कडेन सुपर पावर आसली जाल्यार, तुमच्या गांवांत/शारांत तुमी खंयची एक गजाल सुदारतले?
What Goans would change, and what they need to do it.
This edition asked one more question: given the climate crisis, what is one change you and the people around you can make happen, and what support would you need? The answers are practical and local. Plant and protect trees. Fix waste and plastic. Harvest water and use the sun. And where people named the support they would need, it was often the same: local authorities, the panchayat and the municipality, who act with them.
हवामानाचें संकट पळयतना, तुमी आनी तुमच्या भोंवतणचे लोक खंयचो एक बदल घडोवन हाडूं शकतात?
79 Goenkars, 38 villages and towns.
Every response names a gaon or shar, and almost every one names its vaddo (78 of 79). Most come from North Goa (66), fewer from South Goa (13). The largest group is from Chimbel (28 voices). Take Chimbel out and Goa’s score rises a little, from 2.37 to 2.42. Chimbel’s answers pull the average down slightly, but the strongest and weakest lenses stay the same. With most places represented by one to three people, these early findings read Goa as a whole. With more voices from every vaddo, the next update can begin to read Goa village by village. Is your gaon missing, or represented by just one person? Add it.
Same questions, a different place.
The WISE Quotient asks the same 17 questions in every city it travels to, scored the same way. That makes one careful comparison possible with Mumbai’s 2026 edition (3,614 voices). Read it as a direction, not a verdict: Goa’s sample is small. Goa’s overall score is a little below Mumbai’s (2.37 for Goa, 2.47 for Mumbai), and both places share the same shape, strongest on Inclusion and weakest on Sustainability. The differences sit in particular questions.
| Goa | Mumbai | |
|---|---|---|
| Overall WISE Quotient | 2.37 | 2.47 |
| W · Well-Being | 2.30 | 2.25 |
| I · Inclusive | 2.82 | 2.85 |
| S · Sustainable | 1.96 | 2.16 |
| E · Entrepreneurial & Expression | 2.39 | 2.47 |
| Feel they belong | 70% | 78% |
| Feel hopeful about the future | 45% | 70% |
Goa breathes easier and is greener: its air and green cover score well above Mumbai’s. Belonging is a little lower in Goa, though it is still Goa’s highest score. But Goans are far less hopeful about the future, and far less sure their village or town is ready for floods and climate shocks.
Use the love to protect the land.
One line summarises 79 voices: Goenkars are deeply attached to their villages and towns, and worried they are slipping away. Each lens tells us where to act, and almost all of it starts close to home: in the vaddo, at the gram sabha, with the panchayat.
Dev borem korum. To every Goenkar who took the time to answer, thank you.
79 voices so far. Goa needs thousands.
These are early findings from the first 79 Goenkars who answered. The survey stays open, and every new answer from a new vaddo, village or town makes the picture sharper and harder to ignore. It takes 7 to 10 minutes, in English or Konkani, and every answer stays confidential.
Fill it in yourself, then pass it on: to your neighbours, your family WhatsApp group, your parish or temple committee, your panchayat.
Fill the survey → wisecities.in/wisegoa
What this is: 79 people living in Goa answered the same 17 questions about their own village or town, between 27 September and 6 October 2026. Scores run 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree); “don’t know” answers are counted separately and never scored. The overall score is the average of every answer given, and each lens is the average of its four questions. These are early findings from the first round of responses; the survey is still open and this page will be updated as more Goenkars answer.
What it is not: a final or representative picture, not yet. 63 of the 79 who answered are women, most live in North Goa (66 of 79), and the largest single group is from Chimbel (28). Four responses from people living outside Goa were set aside. Groups this small give signals worth exploring, not settled conclusions. The open answers were grouped into themes by their words, and one answer can count toward more than one theme. Quotes are shared without names and credited only to North or South Goa, to keep every response confidential.
