The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : TTD trains fishermen in priesthood

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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

TTD trains fishermen in priesthood

Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI: Sri Venkateswara Employees’ Training Academy (SVETA), which conducts training sessions on temple and administrative issues everyday, saw an altogether different event on Tuesday.

It launched a seven-day training programme on ‘Hindu system of worship’ exclusively for the fishermen community. The 45 select trainees will become temple ‘pujaris’ in their respective hamlets and maintain the temple on their own.

Minister for Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Mandali Buddha Prasad, who inaugurated the programme, recalled his association with the fishermen in his native Avanigadda constituency located close to the shore.

He said that the highly religious-minded and god-fearing fisher folks believed in ‘divine intervention’ before venturing into the sea. He expressed concern over the ‘systematic alienation’ of certain sections from the Hindu society in the absence of a ‘spiritual link’. He also urged the TTD to train priests worshipping ‘Grama Devathas’ (folk gods) in the next phase.

Social obligation

TTD Trust Board Chairman B. Karunakar Reddy said that six crore Hindus had embraced alien faiths post-independence that projected a figure alarming than the scenario during the 1,000 years of Muslim rule and 300 years of British rule.

The TTD had taken upon itself with renewed vigour the ‘social obligation’ bring back the people who had converted to other religions back into Hindu society.

TTD Executive Officer K.V. Ramanachary congratulated the AP Fishermen Welfare Association chief Koduru Jayaram for his initiative in making the programme a reality. SVETA director Bhuman said that the course module had been designed to make the fishermen not only priests, but also ‘vibrant and socially responsive citizens’.

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