By Lalita Roshni Lakra

Kolkata, Jan 21, 2024: The Conference of Religious Women India has trained 46 nuns to create awareness about the grievance redressal cell among its members in northern India.

The Jan 19-21 Training of Trainers program was attended by participants from Andamans, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.

The training at Jesuit’s Dhyan Ashram Retreat Centre in Diamond Harbour Road aimed at educating nuns about the grievance redressal cell launched in December 2022.

The participants observed that information about the cell has not reached most nuns in the country. Lack of knowledge of law, legal process and safeguards have caused unnecessary troubles, they added.

The program also dealt with Pope Francis document, “Motu Proprio,” the Child Protection Policy of the Indian bishops, and PoSH (Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013).

After the training the participants will conduct similar programs for women in their dioceses and the regions and units of Conference of Religious India (CRI).

The participants studied “It’s High Time,” a book on the findings of a study commissioned by the CRI women section a few years ago. In the book, nuns speak up on gender justice in the Indian Church. The cell was created in response to nuns’ demand for a space to redress their grievances.

The resource persons for the three-day program were Presentation Sister Elsa Muttathu, CRI national secretary, Sister Mary Scaria, a Supreme Court lawyer, Sister Rushila Rebello, and Amita Joseph, a lay woman lawyer, all part of the nine-member Grievance Redressal Cell.