Christians Urged to Use Info Law to Help Poor

AHMEDABAD, Gujarat, Apr. 15, 2010, 17:30 Hrs (UCAN):

India’s chief information commissioner has urged Church workers to make the best use of the information law to help the poor.

The Right to Information Act passed in 2005 is a tool for citizens to participate in the democratic process, Wajahat Habibullah told a seminar in Ahmedabad, the commercial capital of Gujarat state in western India.

About 300 Church workers from all over the state attended the April 13 seminar on Right to Information: Challenges in Making it More Effective.

Habibullah pointed out that even after five years, many Indians are unaware of the scope of the law that enables them to seek information on government schemes and projects.

The chief information officer wants seminar participants to make the law more broad-based by educating people about it, especially the young. By doing this, they could help people participate in governance, “which had unfortunately not happened so far,” he regretted.

Quoting a study, he said only 30 percent of urban and 10 percent of rural people know about the law. Among youths, the awareness level is even lower at only 2.5 percent in villages and 2 percent in cities.

“Church groups could use their network to spread awareness about the Act intended to empower the poor and downtrodden,” the Muslim bureaucrat said.

Prashant (tranquility), a Jesuit-managed human rights group based in Ahmedabad, organized the seminar at St. Xavier’s High School.

Its director Father Cedric Prakash regretted that even after five years many Church workers have not used this “very important instrument” the government “has given us” to empower the poor.

The Jesuit priest said the Church must use the law extensively for “greater accountability and transparency at every level in society.”

Bishop Thomas Macwan of Ahmedabad told seminar participants that Church people should use the law to spread Christ’s message of peace, reconciliation and love among people of all religions.

Spreading awareness of the right to information act is part of the Church workers’ “divine duty,” he said.