By Matters India Reporter
Darjeeling: In spite of the pandemic times disrupting regular novitiate schedules, in the nine novitiates of South Asia region, this year has more novices making their first profession than last year.
Starting from traditional 24th May date for the first professions, this year there are 120 young men making their first profession on varied dates of 24th May, 31st May, 30th June, 15th August and 8th September.
Last year in South Asia region only 93 novices made their first profession as Salesians of Don Bosco.
This year’s 120 novices are currently in 7 novitiates in India namely Shillong, Kohima, Dhajea, Nashik, Hyderabad, Yellagiri and Padivayal Kerala) and in neighbouring Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
The tally of novices in India’s 7 novitiates include 116 novices distributed in the following order: Shillong Meghalaya 29, Padivayal Kerala 26, Yellagiri Tamilnadu 17, Kohima Nagaland 16, Hyderabad Telengana 13, Dhajea North Bengal 9, Nashik Maharashtra 6, Sri Lanka 3 and Bangladesh one.
Out of 120 novices professing this year, there are three lay brother novices, one in Kohima novitiate for Guwahati province and two in Dhajea (Darjeeling) one each for Kolkata and Guwahati.
There are 2,800 plus Salesians spread out in 12 provinces of South Asia namely in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.