Breaking caste barriers VHP trains 5000 Dalits as temple Priests

New Delhi, Aug 24: Breaking the caste barriers and taking a revolutionary step the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has trained over 5000 Dalit Priests (Purohits) across the country, 2500 amongst them are from Tamil Nadu alone.

This is being done as part of VHP’s mission and practice of ending caste discrimination and untouchability prevalent in the society. This is considered as a great success on part of the VHP, said Vinod Bansal, National Spokesman of the organization. He said that due to VHP efforts many such priests are included in the panels of the government-managed temples.

“We have achieved huge success in southern India. There is a large number of Dalit priests in southern states. In Tamil Nadu alone, 2,500 priests have been trained due to the efforts of the VHP. There are a large number of Dalit priests in Andhra Pradesh also. The VHP has achieved a huge success in training of 5,000 Dalit priests,” he said.

Two wings of the VHP are involved in the mission, ensuring training in the conduct of different religious rituals to the Dalits interested in religious matters. They are even provided certificates at the end of their training. He further said that priests are given certificates by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) once they acquire proficiency in handling different religious ceremonies and rituals.

Vinod Bansal further said that five years after it was set up in 1964, the VHP started working to ending caste discrimination and eliminating the scourge of untouchability in society. He pointed out that the decision to help eradicate untouchability was taken at a VHP convention in Udupi in Karnataka in 1969, where the seers had sent out a message that “All Hindus are brothers and no one is fallen”. (हिंदवः सोदरा सर्वे, न हिंदू पतितो भवेत|)

In 1989, the VHP had the foundation stone of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya laid by Kameshwar Choupal, a Dalit.

He added that in order to take this initiative further, VHP leaders and other saints had gone to the home of ‘Dom Raja’ to invite him to the ‘Dharam Sansad’ held in Kashi (Varanasi) in 1994 and had even had meal at his house.