Thomas Scaria

Catholic sisters in India have enhanced their youth ministry, with the aim to bring young people closer to the church, "understanding and accepting them as they are with their dreams, weaknesses and strengths."

In the wake of the rape and murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor on duty in Kolkata, Catholic nuns have joined widespread calls for urgent steps to prevent increasing cases of sexual violence against women in India.

After July 30 landslides swept away villages and a town in Wayanad, Kerala, India, Catholic sisters joined efforts to organize relief camps, offering school buildings, collecting aid and providing counseling.

Twelve women religious congregations in Sri Lanka have come together to address human trafficking, unsafe migration and exploitation of women and children in the island nation.

"My first appointment was in a conflict area, so you could say my religious journey was among war victims on the battlefield. I lived my religious life in the war zones for 26 years and even after the war."

Behind every cup of Ceylon tea, there is a story of exploitation and bonded labor, says Apostolic Carmel Sr. Maria Amali, whose congregation has worked among Sri Lanka's tea plantation workers for almost 100 years.

The island nation now has around 100 members of Lay Salvatorians, a laity group in the Salvatorian family involved in caring for the sick, poor and homeless. 

Kuzhinapurathu spoke to Global Sisters Report about various challenges faced by the religious congregations in India — dwindling vocations, aging members and the culture of working together.

 St. Joseph of Chambery sisters in India run a school for deaf children, working through the obstacles that come without having an official sign language in their country. 

Five years after a terrorist attack killed at least 270 people and wounded 500 more on Easter Sunday in Sri Lanka, the church initiated the process of declaring the victims as "heroes of faith." 

Six women congregations have come together to empower "youth at risk" in Bengaluru. "This is the perfect example of synodality in action as envisaged by Pope Francis," says Apostolic Carmel Sr. Maria Nirmalini.

Sisters of secular institutes in India spearhead ministries that offer a better future to children who have been living in the streets or found at bus stations, offering shelter, education and later placing them in job training.

As Catholics in southern India resist the Syro-Malabar Synod's decision requiring the priest to face the altar during parts of Mass, sisters pray for a peaceful ending to the decades long dispute.

The Franciscan Sisters Servants of the Cross manage Jyothi Seva, a school for the visually impaired in Bengaluru, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. Jyothi Seva helps students to discover their dignity and value.

A feature film on martyred nun Sr. Rani Maria Vattalil is changing attitudes toward missionaries in India while enhancing dignity and confidence among women religious, according to laity and religious who spoke with GSR.

Salesian Sisters run one of the few rehabilitation centers that treat  women with substance abuse addictions in India. 

Bethany Sr. Mable Clara D'Mello shares her experience ministering in the relief camps of Manipur, a northeastern India state where ethnic violence has raged since May 3. 

As violence continues in Manipur, India, sisters care for children in refugee camps while continuing their ministry of looking after orphaned and abandoned children in their Homes of Hope shelters.

The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ in Bengaluru, India, educate children who would otherwise be working with their nomadic parents in garbage segregation units, in waste picking or at construction sites.

Sr. Rose Paite, a native of the violence-hit Manipur state in northeastern India, works for the prevention of human trafficking, especially women and children from the tribal communities of the region.