DEVIKA Sequeira in a brief acknowledgement of the tribute paid to her as Goa’s first woman journalist at the GUJ felicitation asked pertinently, Why if women have come a long way in journalism, there are no women editors in Goa? It’s an important question to ask and redress, she opined, “When I started off I had first wanted to work as a journalist in Goa but only when I couldn’t find a job I went to Bombay where working at the Indian Express was a big learning experience for me….” Later, she returned to Goa because her heart was in Goa and joined the English Herald as chief reporter when Rajan Narayan was the editor and worked with distinction for many years, until the kind of low salaries media people were earning in Goa made her quit for more rewarding remuneration and better working conditions as correspondent with the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald for many years.
She asked with anguish why “women journalists can be reporters, sub-editors, magazine editors, but in mainstream media in Goa there has not been a single woman editor?” She hoped there would be a woman editor very soon and appealed, “Please don’t see us as just woman journalists, we are journalists equal to anyone!”
She is currently an independent senior journalist contributing regularly to the online newspaper The Wire, and also contributes to The Times of India and Deccan Herald amongst other publications. A senior journalist she has covered political developments extensively and is a familiar byline to readers in English.