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Sabina Martins Is a Women with a Purpose
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Sabina Martins Is a Women with a Purpose

Uncategorized October 31, 2025 , by

By Praveena Sharma

She has been shaking up systems and getting policies and legislations rewritten to bring about constructive changes in the society since she was 15 years old

Her conversations are profusely sprinkled with nervous laughs. But, underneath those titters, is a steely resolve to make a change or a difference that is better for the society.
Human rights activists and educator Sabina Martins has been a woman with a mission for almost 45 years now. In 1980, she was barely 15 years old – had just started her Class XI – when activism bug bit her and she joined the Progressive Students Union (PSU) – students’ rights group.
One of her first protests was for her college’s student council general secretary, who had been denied admission. She went on a hunger strike for it. Since then, Martins has been unstoppable. She has been on morchas against unfair fee and bus fare hikes, to demand for cycle stands, change in timings of practical and a whole host of other issues.
Later, she took part in educative street plays staged by Sangarsh Natya Manch as a member of Citizens for Civil Liberties and Democratic Rights. All this kicked off her activism journey. Till date, she has not turned back.
Was there a trigger or an inspiration that set her on the chosen path? None, she says. It all came to her naturally.
“I come from a middleclass family; nobody was is into politics. People think if someone close to you is in politics then you are into it (activism) but (that is not true), it is just our involvement with social issues,” she reasons.
Along the way, there was a realisation among a group of activists, close to her, that women’s issues were not getting actively taken up. That is how the idea of starting an exclusive organisation for women’s causes came up.
However, there was resistance from within her civil liberties and rights group as it would split their movement. Martins held back then, but as soon as she was out of college, she founded the women’s right group Bailancho Saad in 1986.
Under her leadership, Bailancho Saad has taken active part in crucial national and local campaigns aimed at shaping policies and legislations relating to women’s rights.
Twenty years later, in 2006, she got involved with Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA), along with prominent professionals, experts and concerned citizens, to save the State from trundling down the road of destruction.
It all started with the government’s Regional Plan, 2011, which looked like a blueprint for destroying Goa’s environment, heritage, culture, and character. Its land use planning favoured the builders, investors and politicians looking to make quick bucks.
A programme, organised by Navhind Times on the Press Day (December 3, 2006), where a PowerPoint presentation by the Goa Heritage Society depicting how Goa’s hills and landscape would look like if the Regional Plan, 2011 were to be approved left everyone in the room shocked.
After the function, a group of professional consisting of leading architect Dean D’cruz, Heta Pandit, Reboni Saha and others met up and formed the Goa Bachao Abhiyan (GBA) on the same day. Martins was made the co-convenor of GBA, North Goa.
As the movement gathered speed, prominent activists like the late human rights activist Satish Sonak, Dr Oscar Rebello, late fashion designer and activist Wendell Rodricks, Patricia Pinto, Ritu Prasad and others joined it.
Those concerned with the issue decided to call a public meeting at Azad Maidan on December 18, 2006. They expected not more than 200 people to attend it but to their surprise a large crowd of 10,000 people assembled for it.
This was followed by another public assembly on January 25, 2007 at Lohia Maidan, where Gram Sabhas (Village legislative assemblies) were called to oppose the Regional Plan, 2011.
“Once that momentum built up, it ignited lot of passion. People in every village were organising and aligning with our cause,” she recalls.
After these agitations, the GBA decided to meet the then Goa Governor S C Jamir to request for the withdrawal of the Regional Plan, 2011, redrafting the plan and effectively implementing the new plan. They were taken aback by his swift response.
“We were barely halfway back from the governor’s place (between Dona Paula – Governor’s residence – and Miramar) when we got a message from his office saying the regional plan has been withdrawn. That was 2007. It was a very quick victory. We were all set for a prolonged agitation,” she said jubilantly.
She revealed those hoping to reap political mileage from it were disappointed. But for Martins, it was another major milestone on the highway of her activism journey. Recently, she hit another one when the typographical error of ‘special’ was rectified to ‘spatial’ in the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, on October 22.

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