A
National Workshop on Gender Issues Facing the Indian Church and Society.
July 13-16, 2010
1. Organization
of the Workshop: Indian School of Ecumenical Theology,
a department of Ecumenical Christian Centre organized A National Workshop on
Gender Issues Facing the Indian Church and Society. The sincere effort of the organizers,
particularly of the Program Co-ordinator, Rev. Reji Samuel, Lecturer and
Incharge of Indian School of Ecumenical Theology, was much rewarded in terms of
good response from the resource persons and delegate-sending bodies. He welcomed
the delegates from different churches and theological institutions. He made an
introductory note to the national workshop on “Gender Issues facing the Indian
Church and society.” He addressed the urgency of this workshop. The relevance
of the theme, Gender Issues facing the Indian Church and Society, to the
contemporary Indian situation is beyond description.
- Representation: Besides the delegates from different Indian states – Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Orissa, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Mizoram, and Madhya Pradesh, there have been delegates from other countries, such as, New Zealand and Nepal. Various denominational traditions, such as, Church of South India, Church of North India, Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church, Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist Church, Marthoma Church, Assemblies of God, Indian Pentecostal Church, Andhra Evangelical Lutheran Church, etc. and Christian organizations such as, Indian Evangelical Mission and Emmanuel Hospital Association and Theological institutions affiliated to Senate of Serampore and ATA are represented namely, Andhra Christian Theological College, Tamilnadu Theological Seminary, Aizawl Theological College, Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Academy of Integrated Christian Studies and South Asian Institute of Advanced Christian Studies.
- Resource Persons and Their Themes: In all, eight resource persons participated and presented the sub-themes given to them as follows:
a)
The welcome and introduction
was followed by the inaugural message by Rev. J R. Paul Singh, Deputy Director
of ECC, focused on “Gender Discourse: A Subaltern Biography of the
"Othered Bodies". He dealt with the subject from the perspectives of
traditional Indian Society, the Bible and subaltern.
b)
Sr. Dr. Pushpa Joseph, Head of
the department of Christian studies in the University of Madras, gave a keynote
address titled “Women’s Representation and participation in Church.” She
organized her paper from historical perspective comprised of three periods of
the Church i.e. Pre Modern, Modern and Post Modern. She also mentioned different
theological anthropologies on Gender issues and specifically emphasized the
need of a holistic anthropology for feminist theology. In her second presentation
she dealt with gender issues in family, education and career, that manifest in
the form of atrocities against women, domestic violence, trafficking, rape and
dowry related violence.
c)
Rev. Dr. L. Jayachitra, Assistant
Professor in Department of New Testament at Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary, presented
a paper, titled, “Problematic Bible
text: An Analysis”, based on the interpretation of Adam and Eve along with the
Pauline literature, mentioned about a need of a continuous canonization through
re-reading and re-interpretation. She interpreted Genesis 2: 18 with a strong
stress on the creation of the first man and woman for a relationship of
mutuality and equality. She contended that “there should be attempts to suggest
co-partnership and belonging to each other as full humans in the redemptive act
of Jesus Christ.” In her second presentation on “Women and Environment”, she
emphasized that women and nature are co-creators with God and co-sustainers of
life.
d)
Dr. Ms. Nalini Arles, Professor
in the United Theological College, in the department of Christian Ministry,
made a presentation on BPO and ITES with the title “The Midnight Youth and the
Response of Church”. She ably sums up all the horrendous aspects of challenges
pertaining to BPO & ITES. She strongly urges the churches and the
theological institutions to make appropriate response to those challenges.
e)
Rev. Rohan Gideon, lecture in
Christian Theology at Tamil Nadu Theological Seminary dealt with “The Rights of
Girl Child”. In his concluding remarks he mentioned the sacramentality of
Children and their presence reminds us of our own rights as adult.
f)
Dr. Ms. Hrangthan Chhungi, the
Executive Secretary of National Council of Churches in India for Commission of
Tribal and Adivasi. She presented the paper on “Gender hegemony from the
perspective of Tribal and Dalit Community”. She focuses basically on the gender
hegemony against tribal and dalit communities in certain states. Within that
hegemony she further emphasized on the oppression, sub-ordination, victimization
and dehumanization of women. She concludes gender hegemony affects the lives of
thousands of vulnerable tribal and dalit community in India through its various
manifestations. We are not left to make a choice but to act to liberate the
victims and raise our voices to stand for the wronged.
g)
Sr. Kusum Patharamchira is
currently serving as the Provincial superior in the order of Augustinian
Sisters of Roman Catholic Church. She has presented the view of the Roman
Catholic Church on Gender Policy. In her presentation she has elaborately
discussed the various view of Roman Catholic Church on Gender and highlighted
the role of Church as well as family and the importance of existence as
co-existence.
h)
Mrs. Cynthia Stephen presented
two papers “Domestic and Migrant Workers” and “Domestic Violence, Forced
Marriage, Honor Killing”. She specifically highlighted the rights of migrant
workers and human right violations against such migrants especially migrant
household laborers and migrant construction workers. She concludes the session
with the remarks that patriarchal notions and hegemonic tendencies of the
society leads to violent situations. The patriarchal notions and hegemonic
tendencies in the church and society is a series issue in our situation. As pastors
and church leaders we must be aware of the all things and conscientize the
society about the situation.
i)
Dr. Ms. Anuradha S, Assistant
professor of National Law School of India University. The presenter has given
an elaborative and systematic presentation on “Trafficking and Sexual Abuse”.
She stressed that trafficking is a part of an organized crime. She concluded
trafficking and sexual exploitation commercially of women, girls and boys is a
major detriment to the family, community and society. Trafficking and
prostitution and ensuing economic, sexual, emotional abuse challenges the very
notion of a humane and civilized world.
- Study Materials: Despite the pressure of time and other engagements most of the resource persons could have their papers printed for the benefit of the whole workshop. The papers are by and large highly academic yet factual, scholarly yet practical… etc.
- Striking Feature: In pursuance of the discussion on the Midnight Youth and the Responses of the Church (originally titled The Plight of Women in BPO/Call Centers) presented by Dr. Nalini Arles, the assembly resolved to appeal to the Senate of Serampore College to introduce a curriculum specifically addressed to the Issues centered around BPO/Call Centers…
- Participation of Delegates: The delegates’ participated well… divided into groups and had dialogue … all seem to be sincere! …
- Suggestion:
a)
The drafting committee would like to propose having all the papers
published for the benefit of the churches, Christian organizations and theological
institutions.
b)
On the suggestion of the
delegates the drafting committee has made the following draft of recommendation
to the Theological Institutions such as Senate of Serampore College, Asia
Theological Association, and Churches in India:
Recommendation to the Theological
Institutions such as Senate of Serampore College, Asia Theological Association,
and Churches in India
We the delegates
of the National Workshop on Gender Issues Facing the Indian Church and Society,
July 13-16, 2010, organized by ISET-ECC have been deeply struck by the
horrendous Plight of Women and youth in the swelling Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) or, Call Center. With the reliable anticipation of India
becoming a prominent BPO nation in the Asia-Pacific we are convinced that the
impact it makes not only on the young women but also on the young men and on
the familial relations as well is alarming. The inevitable multiplication of
the youth under the pressure of unemployment seeking place in the BPO/Call
Centers impresses us that the churches and theological colleges in India have a
lot more to do in order to address the issue. It is essential to formulate
theological bases for the purpose of calling the churches to greater effort and
action. With sincere acknowledgment of the efforts being made by the churches
in terms of industrial mission and chaplaincy, as well as steps taken by the Theological
Insitutions (in terms of introducing such curricula as Pastoral Counseling,
Marriage and Family Counseling and integration of Psychotherapy, Secular
Therapies, Sociology, Psychology and Counseling Techniques) we the said
delegates unanimously resolved to plead with the authority of the theological
institutions, to take the concern
(including Indian Value System) into serious consideration and introduce a
curriculum specifically addressing the said BPO/Call Center issues.
As Abraham Lincoln said “I could not be slave at the same time I
could not be a master”. Let me conclude the statement with the famous speech of
Justin Martyr Luther King “One day humankind will come together, sit together
and pray together in the table of brotherhood/ sisterhood.”
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