Jesuits in Gujarat helping indigenous people victims of economic development

(December 14, 2010) Jesuit missionaries have set up the Rajpila Social Service Society (RSSS) in western India’s Gujarat State to help indigenous people, who are threatened by the state’s economic development. The society provides free legal advice to the many Adivasi ,who are victims of discrimination and abuses. Totally, the indigenous communities represent 15 per cent of the Gujarati population.
The rapid pace of economic and industrial development in the state is undermining the Adivasi way of life, forcing them off their land to give way to factories and power plants. Jesuit Fr Rappai Poothokaren said “Many missionaries saw the link between the neglect and exploitation of the Adivasis by the mainstream forces, and the abject poverty which was their lot. They also knew that emergency relief work was not enough to ensure the Adivasis their fair share, realising that the Adivasis had to be empowered through education, mobilisation and organisation. Ever since, Jesuits have enabled the Adivasis to organise and to mobilise for their rights”. The Jesuits have been working among Gujarat’s indigenous peoples since 1960. At present, 26,000 Adivasis are involved in Catholic and non-Catholic organisations run by the Adivasis themselves, whose action ranges from leadership training and establishing farm cooperatives to preserving medicinal plant crops and saving ancient traditions. In recent years, the Jesuits have also pushed young Adivasis to study law in order to fight the abuses their communities suffer. They have also helped the elderly and the illiterate go through the maze of the state bureaucracy.