Viewing holistically

There are wide-spread protests and lots and lots of write-ups about the recent gang rape of a 23 year old student in Delhi.  Truly very shocking and sad.  The only good thing about the present situation is that the girl is fighting back to survive and get back her normal self.  The protests and uproar too is something. Hope some good comes out of all this.

However, I wish to focus on something which very often gets forgotten amidst this whole scenario: the larger picture.  While there is so much uproar about this one incident, there is hardly any talk or news about the 8-year old dalit girl who was apparently raped and murdered. I wonder if there is an investigation, at least half as intense as the one going on in Delhi, in place.  At another place in the North-East there was a similar incident but which by and large has made it only to the side column of a local newspaper only.  While being equally heinous, why is it that there is such a focus on one and practically nothing on the other similar cases?

While an immediate knee-jerk response would not be an ideal and long lasting solution to these atrocities carried out on women, I strongly support that a sensible education fostering an equal treatment of children right since their early days is most apt. When children are not discriminated on the basis of the sex they belong to, there will naturally be an atmosphere of equality and collaboration.  As of now, there is a growing sense of domination and unhealthy competition.

May all those who are deprived of their basic dignity to live life, be equally treated as victims and everyone take responsibility for a better tomorrow. 

Networking and envisioning

One strong point emerging from the various interventions made by the confreres of different Provinces stemming from their practical and long-standing experience working in the Communication sector - besides the ruing that there ought to be a full-timer as the delegate for the Social Communication Commission) - is that there is hardly any real networking between the various commissions/departments/sectors (call it whatever one might). Each department does lot of work (if at all is functional). But in a direction it considers best. Another department too which does well, achieves lot but not necessarily in the same direction. Now, each department doing well in its own field is a great achievement, but what if all of these departments were to be coordinated so as to collectively, as a Province, move towards a common goal. That would be a real miracle, given our present working style (perhaps, Bl. John Paul II could help us with this in exchange for his canonisation!).

As far as my understanding goes, this is the task of the Youth Pastoral Team... coordinate the various commissions and departments to ensure that the common mission is worked out in each specific field, so that we grow as a Province. Perhaps if it does a little more than cut-and-paste the commission plans into one file, some good is bound to be done! Furthermore, a clear vision as to what is it that we are working towards will help a long way in fructifying our efforts.

Sharing and enlarging the family

One of the main problems why we Salesians find it difficult to find collaborators for our efforts is perhaps our 'me-and-MY JOB' attitude. We hardly make known to others, especially and specifically to our beneficiaries, our works. We run a school but hardly do any of our children or their parents know that we also work for children on the street, the juveniles, the school drop-outs, ... Our Parishioners only get good and holy sermons about the 'Kingdom of heaven', not much about how it is already being unfolded in our boardings, youth centres, technical schools, street children homes, counselling centres... !

Conclusion, we slog today, tomorrow and here after - all by ourselves! Worse still, when students pass out of our institutions, they have little or no sense of social responsibility, even though we taught them, we paid their fees, we bought their uniforms, we provided them with the best of education!! But imagine if we were to involve all those whom we interact with in our daily mission, introduce them to OUR work (not merely my work)... Some ideas that cropped up in my mind today as I listened to Fr MC George I put down here:

• take boys/parishioners to our other Salesian centres for a day of outing.
• while preparing souvenirs, brochures and booklets, include a small note about the other works we do.
• invite young people for a retreat or day of recollection in our formation houses (when the formees are there, not when they are gone for holidays!).
• get our own friends to speak to our aspirants - anything!
  
• get street children into our 'mainstream' schools.
  
• involve high school children in organising camps for the less-privileged children.

I need to speak about my family - after all, the one working in the boarding or parish or street children centre, or the mission station is my brother, my confrere! And if my extended family starts working together (each one in their own way), ah... now that's going to be something grand! I won't have to carry Don Bosco or Christ alone!!