What’s special about Orissa?

• Its where Fr. Joe Thundiyil Chacko’s, our inspiration and mentor, served before coming to the USA. And its where his heart is….

• Many of India’s Catholic priests and nuns are working to improve the plight of the poor in this area

• It is an area where Christians and Hindus don’t always live together and interact as they should

The State of OrissaThe State of Orissa is located on the east coast of India

•Inhabited for over 5000 years•Small principalities prior to British rule

28 states & 7 territories set mostly along language lines

•Formed only 60 years ago @ British Departure

•East & West Pakistan were carved out of the partitioning of the India sub continent…

•E. Pakistan became Bangladesh which to this day contributes to the Pakistan-India friction

Formed in 193637 Million  people – slightly more than California60,000 sq-mi Slightly larger than Georgia63% literate47% live below poverty lineOriya is main language

22% of population is“Tribal”infant mortality rate of 6.5%

Mogul Empire was a Persian, Islamic imperial power that ruled the Indian subcontinent until the British arrival in the 1700’s

Orissa

Major Indian Languages

Hindi41.2%

Bengali8.1%

Telugu7.2%

Urdu5.0%

other5.5%

Maithili 1.2%

Gujarati 4.5%

Malayalam 3.2%

Punjabi 2.8%

Assamese 1.3%

Oriya 3.2%

Kannada 3.7%

Marathi7.0%

Tamil5.9%

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Train ride from Calcutta (Kolkata) to Belasore (Balashwar): 3.5 long hours!But the drive back was even more

“FUN”!!

Orissa Religious Strife: 2008• According to All India Christian Council, the 2008 violence affected in 14

districts out of 30 and 300 Villages, 4,400 Houses burnt, 50,000 Homeless, 59 People killed including at least 2 pastors, 10 Priests/Pastors/Nuns injured, 18,000 Men, women, children injured, 2 women gang-raped including a nun, 151 Churches destroyed and 13 Schools and colleges damaged

• Hindu nationalist groups have blamed the violence on the issue of religious conversion. clashes are long-simmering tensions between equally impoverished groups: the Kandha tribe, who are 80% of the poor, and the Pana The Panas have converted to Christianity in large numbers and prospered financially

• Conversions have been legislated by the provisions of the Freedom of Religion Acts, replicated in some of the states in India. Orissa was the first state of independent India to enact legislation on religious conversions. The Orissa Freedom of Religion Act, 1967, stipulates that no person shall “convert or attempt to convert, either directly or otherwise, any person from one religious faith to another by the use of force or by inducement or by any fraudulent means

• -from Wikipedia

Jyothi Hospital

Deaf Children’s School

Missionaries of Charity Sisters Orphanage Vikas Sadan

Education Ctr.

Some of the locations we visited in Balasore, Orissa

For more info visit: www.orissaindia.com