By Purushottam Nayak
Hyderabad, Dec. 6, 2018: The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India has honored tenth and twelfth grade toppers among girls from Dalit and tribal Catholic communities.
“This has been hailed as a very novel and unique attempt ever made by to encourage and to reach out to the less fortunate girl children,” said Sister Talisha Nadukudiyil, secretary of the CBCI Council for Women addressing the award ceremony on December 5 at Hyderabad, capital of Telangana state.
The council gave the awards together with the CBCI Offices the address the issues of Dalit and tribal communities
According to Sister Nadukudiyil, the award will help bring to the limelight Dalit and tribal women of intellectual acumen to advance in life. The selections were made on the basis of the students’ outstanding performance in studies in spite of their financial, cultural and geographical difficulties.
The award has been granted to the national as well as state level toppers in the 2018 board exams, explained the Servants of the Destitute nun.
Arava Mary Vasundhara, a tenth grader from Nellore diocese in Andhra Pradesh state, said the award “is a great boost for me from side of the Church.”
All with 75 percent or more votes were given complimentary prizes. The awardees’ names were announced on December 5 at the Regional Bishops’ Council meeting of Andhra-Telangana in Hyderabad.
The names of the national toppers are:-
Dalit Community-:
1. Arava Mary Vasundhara, 10th Nellore, A.P
2. Kovuru Amrutha Varshini, 10th Nellore, A.P
3. Gonu Rajani, 12th Nellore, A.P
Tribal Community-:
1. Vandana Katara, 10th, Jhabua, M.P
2. Salomi Baxla, 12th, Kohima, Nagaland