The Pala diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church appears keen to expand further the scope of its welfare scheme for families having five or more children and looks set to implement it from next month.
A circular issued by the Bishop of Pala Mar Joseph Kallarangatt on Tuesday asserted the need for launching an action plan as a relief measure to large families that are facing crises.
“Families are experiencing severe financial crunch these days. The education of children, their health and employment have all become arduous tasks,” noted the circular, to be read out in parishes under the diocese on August 1.
According to the bishop, parents should happily receive the children gifted by God and are duty bound to raise them responsibly. “By giving birth to each child, the parents are becoming part of God’s creation process,” he noted.
The circular further elaborates on the welfare scheme, which begins with a monthly financial assistance of ₹1,500 from August 2021 to the couples who are married after 2000 and have five or more children. It further accords preference to children from such families for employment in a hospital run by the diocese, while women who deliver of their fourth children onward are entitled for free delivery care from admission to discharge in a couple of hospitals run by the Church.
Similarly, children who are born as the fourth or subsequently in a family will be offered free education at the nursing college under the diocese while such children obtaining admission in its engineering or hotel management colleges will be exempted from paying tuition fee.
The scheme also seeks to give priority to these children, who are born between 2000 and 2021, in recruitment to educational institutions in accordance with the government norms.
The scheme, proposed by the Family Apostolate of the Pala diocese the other day, had received a barrage of criticism in the social media.
