LALGUDI, Tamil Nadu (Indian Catholic News) — The Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council has launched a series of training programs across dioceses in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, aiming to empower marginalized communities through the “Do No Harm” approach.
The initiative, already reaching more than 500 grassroots groups, responds to “growing passivity on one side and escalating violent reactions on the other,” rooted in generations of caste‑based discrimination and oppression, according to a document released by the Tamil Nadu Bishops’ Council’s Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Each group of about 20 members actively participates in village assemblies, reclaims socio‑economic entitlements from local authorities, and has begun to bring significant changes in their communities, the commission’s report said.
Bishop Jeevanandam Amalanathan of Kumbakonam, Commission Chairperson and Capuchin Father Nithiya Sagayam, the commission’s State Secretary, issued that report.
Presiding over a Sept. 3 program at Don Bosco Hall in Lalgudi, a town in the Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu, Bishop Amalanathan urged participants to integrate the Do No Harm approach into “personal behaviour and social relations for the promotion of peace and justice.”
Father Sagayam described the lifelong oppression faced by marginalized groups “from womb to tomb” and offered remedies for healing and empowerment. He stressed the “essential part that parents and families play in raising children and youth for a vibrant future.”
Dalit Christians, despite constitutional protections, remain excluded from government reservation benefits granted to Dalits of Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist faiths.
Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) are officially recognized groups in India who have historically faced social exclusion and disadvantage, and are granted constitutional protections, affirmative action, and welfare measures to promote equality and justice.
Grassroots impact
The recent training drew 120 village delegates, who pledged to cascade the knowledge to their communities. “This knowledge will be cascaded down to all members and their village communities, so that the Do No Harm approach becomes a collective tool for empowerment and transformation,” the Commission noted.
Delegates continue to advocate for entitlements in “children, youth, women, education, employment and equality in society.”
The commission plans similar programs in all dioceses in the coming weeks. Organizers say this systematic effort will “strengthen the collective resolve to fight caste‑based discrimination, bring about holistic social transformation and promote the rights and dignity of the marginalized.”
The Do No Harm approach to social transformation is a pastoral strategy or evaluation framework regarding caste dynamics and Dalit representation among Catholic bishops in Tamil Nadu involves balancing institutional unity with demands for structural justice.
The commission says the Do No Harm is necessitated as a response to “growing passivity on one side and escalating violent reactions on the other.”
These reactions stem from generations of caste‑based discrimination and neglect that denied Dalit Catholics basic rights such as access to roads, drinking water, primary education, and health care. The commission said it is dedicated to transforming these “painful realities into empowerment, resilience and justice” through the strategy.
Read the commission’s report and press release.
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