With about 650 fishermen still missing a month after the Ockhi cyclone hit the southern Indian coast, hundreds of families spent Christmas and New Year in lingering hope of their return, but optimism is fading fast.

The federal government has put the number of missing fishermen at 661. Federal Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament on Dec. 27 that 261 from Kerala and 400 from Tamil Nadu are missing. No one has been rescued since the announcement.

Official government records show 76 people died in the Nov. 29-Dec. 5 tragedy in the southern tip of India covered by the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

“It indeed was a very sad Christmas and New Year for us. With children waiting for their fathers, and wives for their hus-bands, how will families cele-brate?” asked Robert Panippillai, leader of a volunteer group that works in the coastal areas near Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), Kerala’s capital.

Harassed by vigilante groups, Goa’s only beef traders associa-tion on January 4 said they will go on an indefinite strike from Saturday, until the government cracks down on vigilante groups who hamper bringing in beef from neighbouring states.

The association said the strike would go on till the government eases procedures to bring beef into the coastal state.

Speaking to IANS, Manna Bepari, President of the Qureshi Meat Traders Association of Goa said no beef would be available for sale in Goa, until the government steps in and resolves the issue.

“We are tired of these raids. They are not allowing our business to function. Every other day these groups target the beef consignments which we order from the open market in Karnataka and government officials also keep harassing us,” Bepari said.

“No beef shop will be open until the government helps us and stops these vigilant groups from taking law in their hands,” Bepari said.

He also said that more than five raids were conducted in the last few weeks, especially during the Christmas and New Year period, when sale of beef is at its peak in Goa.

Eight activists including one nun has been injured after a protest march taken out by the Kerala Latin Catholic Women’s Association to the official residence of Forest Minister K. Raju turned unruly.

The demonstration was organised in protest against the destruction of a wooden cross that had been found to be damag-ed a month ago at Kurisumala in Bonacaud. The forum, a feeder organisation of the Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Church, took out the march in protest against the alleged delay in apprehending those responsible for the incident. Nuns and children were among those who took part in the procession.

Police blocked them when they tried to break the police barricade to move towards the residence. Police said they blocked the march when agitators tried to break the barricade and move further towards the minister’s residence.

Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala alleged that police used force on the women protesters, a charge denied by police. Chennithala wanted a probe and action against the police personnel responsible for it.

The police however ruled out any kind of lathi charge. “When they tried to forcibly enter the minister’s residence the police blocked them. We didn’t resort to lathi charge,” said a senior police official.

Indian Christians’ trust in the government has become shaky in the wake of increased attacks on Christians and members of the clergy, says Cardinal Baselios Cleemis, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India.

The cardinal was addressing the media in New Delhi on Dec. 20 after visiting a central Indian city where Hindu activists attacked two Catholic priests and 30 seminarians accusing them of attempting religious conversion.

The Christians, who were in a village singing Christmas carols, were attacked and their car torched just outside a police station. Police in Madhya Pradesh State kept them in custody for a night. The administration acted under pressure from Hindu groups, Cardinal Cleemis claimed.

Modi’s pro-Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) runs the government in 18 of 29 Indian states, including Madhya Pradesh, where Christians leaders say the administration is unwilling to act against Hindu fanatic groups.

“The anxiety of the religious minorities is increasing because of the lack of confidence in the administration. So the onus is on the government to bring back the confidence of religious minorities,” Cardinal Cleemis said. Frequently, Christians are attacked on allegation that they violate laws that regulate religious conversion. These laws also make it a criminal offence to attempt to convert anyone using fraud, inducement or allurement. Often Christian work in the fields of education and health care of villagers can be interpreted as inducement or allurement.

A Hindu group has warned Christian schools in Aligarh area of Uttar Pradesh State not to celebrate Christmas in schools alleging that such celebrations are aimed at converting majority Hindu students in these institutions.

Hindu Jagaran Manch state secretary Sanju Bajaj said his organization will issue letters to all Christian schools to refrain from Christmas celebrations. “If the schools fail to follow our directives, we will stage protest outside the institutions,” the Times of India quoted him as saying. Sonu Savita, local leader of the group, claimed Christian schools ask Hindu students to bring toys, gifts and celebrate the Christmas.

“This is the easy way to lure them to Christianity,” he said. The organization is also taking to parents and appealing them to oppose these celebrations, he said adding such activities influence the Hindu students. The Manch’s move has “shocked Christians in Aligarh,” said Advocate Osmand Charles in a statement.

For survivors of one the early 21st century’s worst spasms of anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal in eastern India in 2008, the nine Christmases they’ve marked since have taken on a special meaning, as a reminder of the origins of the faith for which they suffered. Arguably no one has reflected more deeply on that connection than Sr Meena Barwa, the niece of Archbishop John Barwa of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar, who was raped amid the violence and then paraded naked in the village by her attackers, in a final act of humiliation. Overall, the carnage in Kandhamal left at least 100 people dead, thousands injured, hundreds of churches and other Christian sites destroyed, and an estimated 50,000 people taking refuge in a nearby forest for weeks, where more died of snakebite, thirst and hunger.

Barwa said she finds herself thinking and praying over what happened to her in a special way during the Christmas season. “After the incident, many times I celebrated Christmas alone with baby Jesus, and those moments that I spent with my master [have been] the best moments of my life I’ve been experiencing in exile ever since the incident,” she said, in a Christmas letter written for Crux.

Siji Antony was initially thrilled when, after many hurdles, she received her visa for a medical nurse’s job in Saudi Arabia in 2013. A handsome salary and the lure of a big city added to the excitement. But her joy was short-lived.

The restrictions on the practices of her Catholic faith in the kingdom was a major cause for concern. In her home state of Kerala in southern India, she attended Mass daily. “The prospect of living without Sunday Mass was horrifying for me,” she said. Siji belongs to the Syro-Malabar rite, one of the three rites that make up the Catholic Church in India. Based in Kerala, they trace the origin of their faith to St Thomas the Apostle who, according to tradition, visited India in the first century and where it is said he died.

Starved of a religious practice she was accustomed too, Siji thought of inviting her Christian colleagues on Sundays for group prayer in her hostel room.

“I can only pray silently in my room. I have done so for the last four years. I speak of my miseries to God directly,” Siji told. She is now searching for a job in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where the rulers permit people to practice their different faiths.

Of these, church records list some 400,000 Catholics of the Syro-Malabar rite. A 2013 church survey revealed some 75 percent of the migrants are young people aged between 20 and 32. Fr Shaji Kochupurayil, secretary of the Syro-Malabar Church’s Commission for Evangelization and Pastoral Care of the Migrants, said the migrants have spread across nations such as Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, UAE and Saudi Arabia.

The situation in Saudi Arabia “is very difficult” regarding religious practices of Christians, Father Kochupurayil told.

Archbishop Susapakiam of Thiruvananthapuram and Kerala Regional Latin Catholic Council representatives have demanded Rs 3500 crore package from the Centre for the Ockhi-affected people in Kerala. “The package should include protection of coastal area, basic development of fishermen community, availability of communication facility and house construction.

Fishermen should be given 25% representation in Navy, Coastguard and Marine police. The disaster management facility in the eastern coast of India should be made available in Kerala. The Centre should start Fisheries ministry,” they demanded.

They said a memorandum would be submitted to the Prime Minister including the above demands.