“Discrimination against any human being is a disgrace for society everywhere,” Fr Z Devasagayaraj, secretary of the Office for Dalits and backward classes of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), told AsiaNews. The clergyman spoke on the sidelines of “‘Christian Responsibility to Dalits and Caste Discrimination’, a conference held in St George’s Cathedral, Southwark (London). In his view, “the whole world must condemn racism, xenophobia and apartheid. We cannot keep quiet when such practices occur somewhere in the world.”

The Christian Network against Caste Discrimination (CNACD) organised the two-day gathering, which began yesterday, with Card Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, as the guest of honour.

Caste discrimination, especially against the Dalits, aka untouchables, remains a major problem in India, as well as within the Catholic Church. This is why the bishops launched an action plan for the first time last year to counter marginalisation and promote integration. Dalits represent a majority of India’s Catholics, 12 million out of 19.

“We must condemn the caste system and discriminatory practices in the workplace as well,” Fr Devasagayaraj said. “The caste problem is not just a problem in India, but it is widespread in South Asian countries, and where they (Dalits) emigrate.”

“We are sorry that these people still carry with them caste discrimination,” the clergyman added. For this reason, it is important to organise “international seminars on the issue, so that we can shed light on their discrimination in the country, but also in the Christian community.”

According to Mgr Sarat Chandra Nayak, bishop of Berhampur, “the problem is so pervasive that it is not possible to eradicate this evil without the collaboration of the international community. It is vitally important for international institutions to pay greater attention to this issue.” “Caste discrimination continues to be widespread and persistent,” he explained. In fact, “with globalisation, the problem has been exported and with it, the challenges to solve it. At present, it has become a global phenomenon.”

Sister Jiya, a member of the Medical Sisters of St Joseph (MSJ) order in Kerala, has become the first nun in India to direct a feature film.

Cinema was not exactly Sr Jiya’s field of expertise. She never learnt the craft of filmmaking, didn’t plan to be associated with the industry or even bothered to spend much time watching films. Yet she is now the writer-director of a full-length Malayalam feature film.

‘Ente Vellithooval’, the two-and-a-half hour long film which is all set to hit the screens, stands proof of Sr Jiya’s immense dedication and relentless hard work for over a year. The nun, who hails from Palakkad, is the in-charge of the lab at St Seba-stian’s Hospital in Cherupuzha, Kannur.

It all started when the Catholic Church observed 2015 as the Year for Consecrated Life. Sr Jiya wanted to make a short film on the people in the service of the church. She brushed up a story that she had written years ago and developed a screenplay with the help of some friends.

Sr Jiya got her work approved by her superiors in the church. Actress Sarayu was roped in to play the lead role of Sr Merina. The shoot started with the bless-ings of Archbishop George Njaralakatt of Thalassery.

The north-eastern Indian city of Guwahati city India has proclaimed “silence zones” around all religious paces in what many say is a bid to stop mosques using loudspeakers to call Muslims to prayer.

The district administration of Guwahati, the business capital of Assam state, following state government directions, issued an official notification declaring a radius of 100 meters around all religious places, including temples, mosques and churches, to be “silent zones.”

The pro Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party is currently ruling the state with its local alliance, having won a majority in elections last year. The win is seen as historic as it is the first time for ethnically diverse Assam and the north-eastern region for the party to form a state government.

The Bharatiya Janata Party has often been accused of being biased against religious minorities in the country ever since the party swept the national polls in 2014.

Assam has 31 million people, but Hindus are about 60 percent against the national average of 80 percent. Muslims make up about 35 percent, much higher than the 15 percent national figure. Christians are a minority forming 1.1 million or 3.7 percent of the total population.

City officials in Mumbai, formerly Bombay, have destroyed a century-old roadside cross, despite the strong opposition of the local Catholic community.

The cross was built on or around 1895 in the western Bandra neighborhood of the city.

“The religious structure is constructed on a private property,” said  Godfrey Pimenta, of the Watchdog Foundation. “The owner of the property had replied to the said notice and met Ughade wherein documentary evidence, including a Revenue Plan/Property Card, was submitted to explain the legal position of the structure,” Pimenta said, “Despite this, the ward officials demolished the structure.”

Cardinal Oswald Gracias, the Archbishop of Bombay, called the destruction of the cross “deeply disturbing.”

“The concerned [city official] must be held respon-sible and accountable for the action, which was illegal,” Gracias told Crux.

Manuel scavenging is the worst surviving symbol of caste-based discrimination and a sin against God and God’s people, asserts a joint meeting of top Christian bodies in Asia.

The participants of April 24-26 meeting urged Churches to take the lead to ensure the effective implementation of a law passed by the Indian parliament in 2013 to end manual scavenging practices in the country.

The “Abolition of Manual Scavenging in India: An Ecumenical Accompaniment and Advocacy Consultation” was organized by the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA), National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) and the Church of South India (CSI).

The meet wants Churches in the country to acknowledge manual scavenging as a sin and to work for its abolishment in all forms at all levels.

The consultation opened jointly by NCCI general secretary Reverend Roger Gaikwad and CSI General Secretary Reverend Ratnakar Sadanand.

The keynote was delivered by Bezwada Wilson, Magsaysay Award Winner of 2016 and founder of the Safai Karmachari Aandolon, a movement to eradicate manual scavenging.

Although the Church’s mission is to find the lost, it has refocus its attention from the center to the margins with relevant strategies, he told the gathering. “The bottom line of the mission mandate is to defend and advocate for human rights, and affirm the life of every human with respect and dignity,” he explained.

The Church, he noted, has infrastructure and human and financial resources that should be used to help abolish inhuman and un-Christian ideologies such as casteism and practices like manual scavenging.