Goa and Kerala losing out to Tamil Nadu and UP as hot tourist destinations

No record lasts forever – and, hot tourist destinations are no exceptions. Well known destinations like Goa and Kerala are losing their popularity to Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh. Goa has dropped out from the top 10 states in 2014. It has seen a little more than half a million foreign tourist visitors. This is in spite of a rise in the number of foreign tourists visiting the beach destination – that figure has gone up from 0.49 million in 2013 to 0.51 million in 2014.
This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 25 July 2015.

Kerala, known as ‘God’s own country’ is one of India's best known international destinations but, it now stands at seventh position with 0.92 million visitors.
As per data released by the Union tourism ministry, there has been an overall increase in the number of foreign tourists to India – it has increased to 22.57 million in 2014 as compared to 19.95 million in 2013.
The five states that have topped the charts are Tamil Nadu (4.66 million), Maharashtra (4.39 million), Uttar Pradesh (2.91 million), Delhi (2.32 million) and Rajasthan (1.53 million visitors).
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Kerala empowers its women – She Taxi service launched in Kasaragod

Kerala is known to tourists as ‘God’s own country’ and Kasaragod in Kerala has rolled out its She Taxi service – this is a cab service operated only by women where booking can be done via mobile phone or online and can be availed by women traveling alone or with her family. The objective is to ensure safety of the travelers.
It is a part of the Kudumbashree which was launched in 2013 to promote self-employment and entrepreneurship among women.
This is reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 5 June 2015.

The service is a part of the central government's Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) aimed at empowering the women to get a source of self-employment.
Revenue minister Adoor Prakash handed the keys of Maruti Suzuki cars to two lady drivers at a function on the municipal office premises in Kasaragod. The drivers are trained in driving Maruti Suzuki, which also provides customized vehicles to the drivers.
The project has been a big success in cities like Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode and is now being extended to smaller towns like Kasaragod.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

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Exorcism and black magic in Kerala

The government of Kerala has plans to bring forward a legislation to put an end to black magic and exorcism and also launch a massive awareness campaign against superstition because of increasing incidences of such practices. It is in the wake of recurrence of tragic sorcery cases that the government has drawn up plans to bring in legislation to ban these gory rituals.
It would probably be a bill drawn up on the lines of the Anti-Superstition bill in Maharashtra.
It seems in October last two persons had carried out black magic on a 21-year-old woman in order to get rid of a physical ailment. The victim had burn marks on her body and it is believed that she had been tortured in the course of the rituals.
The rituals included burning camphor on her palms and keeping a bunch of 50 lit incense sticks under her chin after which she was asked to inhale the smoke.
The girl was a native of Vadasserikkara in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district and the two persons involved in this heinous activity were her uncle and his son-in-law and the police have arrested both and have been remanded to judicial custody.