Several bishops in Kerala held a day-long hunger strike October 20 to protest the state govern-ment’s withholding of funds from Catholic schools.
The hunger strike was held October 20 in front of the Kerala state secretariat. The prelates participating were Bishops Jo-shuah Kizhakkeveettil of the Syro-Malankara Eparchy of Mavelikara, chair of the Kerala bishops’ education commission; Paul Mullassery of Quilon, the vice chair; and Thomas Tharayil, an auxiliary of the Syro-Malabar Archeparchy of Changana-cherry.
Archbishop Maria Callist Soosa Pakiam of Trivandrum said the state government “curtails our rights as a religious minority to run education institutions through arbitrary orders and amendments to the existing laws,” UCA News reported.
Christians run about 5,000 of Kerala’s 13,000 schools. The government is required to provide financial aid to over half of these schools to support teachers’ salaries.
Father Charles Leon, secretary of the Kerala bishops’ education commission, told UCA News that “it is an indefinite protest.” Protests were held in each of Kerala’s 14 districts.
He also said the state government tried “to meddle in the appointment of teachers in the state-aided schools.”