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 Orissa The 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 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 Million people – slightly more than California 60,000 sq-mi Slightly larger than Georgia 63% literate 47% live below poverty line Oriya 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 Hindi 41.2% Bengali 8.1% Telugu 7.2% Urdu 5.0% other 5.5% Maithili 1.2% Gujarati 4.5% Malayalam 3.2% Punjabi 2.8% Assamese 1.3% Oriya 3.2% Kannada 3.7% Marathi 7.0% Tamil 5.9% 13

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 damagedAll India Christian Council 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 financiallyKandhaPana 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: