Ways to counter human right violations and social injustice were top in the agenda when leaders of Catholic religious working in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttaranchal met last week.

The Conference of Religious India’s (CRI) four-day regional meeting in Varanasi ended Nov. 13. This year’s meeting of 45 Religious superiors also included a day’s joint meeting with 12 bishops in the region.

Jesuit Father Xavier Jayaraj from New Delhi presented a paper on a two-point theme, directing the discussions. He focused on right violation from the Church’s perspective. Human rights challenge the Church to revise its activities, he said.

A major decision of the meeting was to initiate a right-based approach to education, said Father Subhash Jose, CRI regional president.

Father Jose, superior general of the indigenous Indian Missionary Society, told UCA News the Religious in the region plan to formulate text books on human rights to teach in Catholic schools.

Right violations are high in Uttar Pradesh that accounted for more than half the total violations reported in India last year, according to the records of the National Human Rights Commission. Of the total 94,559 complaints the commission received, 55,216 were from Uttar Pradesh.

Most violations were committed by political powerful and socially influential landlords against dalit and farm workers, denying them social justice.

In several cases, socially poor people were forced to work without pay, paraded naked on streets, tied up and beaten for speaking up, and even murdered. Their women were often sexually abused, physically attacked and killed.

The Religious “are committed to work” for social justice, Father Jose said adding that the Church’s response to social justice demands networking and action.

The Religious said one way to achieve this is to practice what they preach in their own houses and institutions. The Religious decided to pay “just wages” to their employees, the priest reported.

The CRI regional superiors also reviewed a resolution they made 10 years ago to help them find out how much they implemented it and what blocks its implementation.

Ten years ago, the Religious in the region had pledged to promote human rights, gender justice, inculturation, development and inter-religious dialogue.

The bishops and the Religious also decided to appoint Public Relation Officers in each of the 12 dioceses in the state to help faster communication and to speak officially for the Church in the secular media.

Source: UCAN Report by Father Nicholas Lakra

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