Half of Bangladesh’s Catholics are tribal. Because of their humble origins and high rate of illiteracy, they are the easiest target of wealthy landowners. Santal families “only thanks to women”.
Dhaka (AsiaNews) – Tribal Catholic families, who account for half of Bangladeshi Catholics, face many difficulties, most notably poverty, lack of education, loss of religious faith and persecution over land.
More than 50 different tribal groups live in the South Asian country. Half of them continue to practise indigenous traditions, whilst the rest have heeded the Gospel message.
Evangelising activities by Christian missionaries take place mostly among these groups: every year many new converts join the flock.
Tribal people, however, because of their humble origins and high rate of illiteracy, are the easiest target of wealthy landowners, who often seize their land using force with complicity of criminal gangs.
Robert Rama, an ethnic Garo, got married two years ago. Instead of going to live in his bride's house, as tribal tradition dictates, he chose to bring her to live with him.
"Traditions change," he told AsiaNews. However, today he is separated from his wife and their son lives with her.
"There have been so many changes in society,” he notes. “Husbands do not want to obey their wives and vice versa. Selfishness is the biggest problem. In couples, everyone wants to dominate the other."
James Kisku, an ethnic Santal and a Catholic, works for an NGO, the Mennonite Centre Committee. "In the Santal community, poverty is the biggest problem,” he said. “Most of us work as day labourers; few have an education or live in good socio-economic conditions."
Santal families "survive only thanks to women. Our women are very patient. Even if drunken husbands mistreat them, they do not abandon the family."
Noting that tribal people converted only in the past generation, he said that "their faith is not as strong as that of Bengali Catholics. Many do not attend mass or pray the rosary. Priests and nuns should visit families more often and provide them with spiritual guidance."
"Challenges are also the effect of globalisation,” said Fr Simon Hacha, an ethnic Garo clergyman from the Diocese of Mymensingh. “Families deal with them around the world and we are not far behind.”
"Modern technologies, social media, the Internet have changed people's lives. Some use them in a positive way, others in a negative way, and that's where problems arise. Many do not want to follow the matriarchal setting of society."
For this reason, "we have decided to organise seminars dedicated to married couples, premarital courses and so on, so as to reduce the problems of families."