The amendment allows the state government to alter a five-year-old federal law that aims to protect the rights of farmers and indigenous people when acquiring their land for state development purposes. Protests and sit-in-demonstrations have been held in several locations around the state following media reports that President Ram Nath Kovind had agreed to the amendments. “The approach of the current government is more pro-rich rather than strengthening the poor,” said Auxiliary Bishop Telespore Bilung of Ranchi, who like other Christian leaders, believes the move dilutes a stricter federal law. The amendment allows the state government to alter a five-year-old federal law that aims to protect the rights of farmers and indigenous people when acquiring their land for state development purposes.

Nearly 20 opposition parties, including Congress and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (Jharkhand Liberation Front), have demanded the state scrap the amendments and conducted a sit-in protest in front of the Ranchi residence of state governor Draupadi Murmu, the representative of the Indian president on June 25. Protesters also gathered outside district headquarters across the state. If the government fails to scrap the move, the opposition plans to hold a state-wide shutdown on July 5. Meanwhile the ruling pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party has been conducting its own campaigns and demonstrations to garner support for the changed federal law.

Church leaders have welcomed a big reduction in India’s maternal mortality rate, with nearly 12,000 fewer women dying during childbirth in 2016.

They said the improvement was the result of a joint effort by government and private health workers.  India’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) registered a 22% reduction in three years. The rate declined to 130 deaths per 100,000 births in 2014-16 from 167 deaths in 2011-13, according to data released by the Registrar General of India on June 6. This meant India saved the lives of nearly 12,000 pregnant women in 2016, UNICEF said in a statement analyzing the data.

“India has shown impressive progress in reducing maternal deaths, with nearly 1,000 fewer women now dying of pregnancy related complications each month in India as compared to 2013,” UNICEF’s India representative Yasmin Ali Haque said.

The result is “very encouraging for us all because the church is at the forefront of the health sector in the country,” said Father Mathew Peru-mpil, secretary of the health office of the Indian Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

He said one reason for the achievement was that people were made aware about facilities by the government and privately run health centres.

The government has introduced several schemes to provide free medicine and health checks for pregnant women in state facilities. Federal schemes are also available to ensure healthy food for pregnant women and newly born babies and their mothers. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the government’s efforts to improve access to high-quality maternal services and increased emphasis on women’s education are some of the reasons behind India’s ground-breaking progress.

A Catholic college’s decision to ban Muslim girl students from wearing hijab sparked protest outside the college campus on June 25.

St Agnes College, Mangalore, has ordered the Muslim students not to wear hijab in the classroom saying the headdress does not conform to the college’s dress code.

In a press statement Principal Sister Jeswina said St Agnes is a “minority institution” catering to women’s education and it respects every student. But the college rules do not permit “headscarves in the classroom.”

The faithful should work together to solve the issues being faced by the archdiocese, Syro-Malabar Church Archbishop Cardinal Mar George Alencherry has said.
“We should reach unity through faith and try to become matured,” he said while delivering introductory message at the installation ceremony of Bishop Mr Jacob Manathodath as the Apostolic Administrator of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese at the St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica.

The Conference of Religious India held a meeting in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) from 27 to 30 May. Participants agreed that, despite criticism of Christians, they will continue to work together for the good of the country.

Speaking at the event, Msgr Theodore Mascarenhas, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI), reiterated the importance of Church unity, stressing the need for everyone – bishops, Caritas, religious and laity – to work together.

Speaking to AsiaNews, Fr Rayarala Vijay Kumar, regional superior of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), said that the meeting provided an opportunity to talk about the country’s political situation, ahead of next year’s general elections.

The venue also gave participants a chance to reiterate “the commitment of the Catholic Church to the needy people of India,” Fr Kumar said, “not only their material needs,” he added, “but spiritual ones as well.” The general assembly of superiors of religious – male and female – congregations is held every three years. About 550 superiors and representatives of Church hierarchies were present at this year’s meeting, including Msgr Giambattista Diquattro, apostolic nuncio to India and Nepal.

“One thing we greatly appreciated was the fact that the nuncio stayed for all four days,” Fr Kumar said. “He spoke to at least with 250 men and women religious. This shows the Vatican’s interest in India.”

Taking a cue from a topic dear to Pope Francis, the Assembly discussed “the Church going forth,” i.e. “the Church going out to the edges (or peripheries) of society,” Fr Kumar explained. “It means finding the Lord in those who thirst for him, the marginalised, and lend a helping hand to those in need.”

With the term edge (or periphery), “we mean being on the margins – the needy, the poor, the sick – but also spiritual, that is, those who live in the misery of the spirit, whether rich or poor.”

Fr V.M. Thomas, a former CRI president, was one of the first to speak. He highlighted the challenges the Indian Church has to face at a very delicate moment in the country’s political life.

The pontiff appointed Father Fulgence Aloysius Tigga as the new bishop of Raiganj in West Bengal state and Salesian Fr Dennis Panipitchai as the auxiliary of Miao in Arunachal Pradesh, according to a press release from the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India headquarters in New Delhi.

Father Tigga, a priest of Bettiah diocese in Bihar, is currently its vicar general.

Father Panipitchai is currently the parish priest of Mary Immaculate Parish, Chingmeirong, in Imphal archdiocese in Manipur diocese. He is also a consulter of the Salesians’ Dimapur province.