Speakers suggest ways to build a better India

(February 03, 2012) Creating conditions for equity should be a priority for the Indian Church in creating a better India, a Christian sociologist advised the country’s Catholic bishops. Equity does not mean material equality, but equality of opportunity, social scientist T. K. Oommen told the biennial plenary assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) in Bangalore. Some 170 bishops, priests and lay people are attending the 30th biennial plenary on the theme, “Church’s Role for a Better India.” According to Oommen, a member of the Mar Thoma Church, it is possible to provide equal opportunities to all sections of people but attempts to attain material equality would be utopian. The former professor of Sociology at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University cited reservations for dalit and tribal groups as an example of creating condition for equity in the country. He stressed that if the Catholic Church was serious about building a better India, then protecting identity, providing dignity and security to all people should become its agenda. Nurturing the specific identity of communities, protecting dignity of people like dalit and tribal groups and women, and sustaining local cultures, languages and habitat of people are important for the creation of a better India, Oommen said. However, he expressed concern over the tendency of some urban-based Christian educational and healthcare institutions, to cater only to the elite in society.
Another speaker who addressed the Indian bishops was Naveen Chawla, former chief election commissioner of India and a biographer of Blessed Teresa of Kolkata. The Hindu bureaucrat urged the Church leaders to continue their good work in education and health sectors. He cited instances where the Church has succeeded and the government has failed in providing health services. He offered Mother Teresa of Kolkata, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, as a model of love, commitment and concern for the poor in all their activities.