The Government of Sri Lanka has invited Gramakkovil Poojarigal Peravai, Tamil Nadu, (GKPP) to conduct training camp for the poojaris working in village temples of Sri Lanka. This is for the second time the Government of Sri Lanka has invited the Peravai to conduct such a camp. In 1999 also the office bearers of the Peravai conducted two training camps for poojaris at Pandaravilai and Colombo. A team of office bearers of GKPP led by Sri RBVS Manian, a trustee of GKPP and vice president of VHP, Tamil Nadu, left for Colombo on November 1 for this two weeks? camp. The two other members of the team are Sri A.K. Soundararajan, state convenor of GKPP and Sri A. Jeevanathan, a bhajanist. The Peravai started imparting training to poojaris in Tamil Nadu in 1990. Ever since 1990, nearly 30 camps were conducted in which more than 25,000 poojaris have been trained. The training is imparted to all poojaris irrespective of castes. Most of the poojaris trained by the Peravai are from the most backward and Scheduled Castes. The training has brought marvelous changes in their lives both economically and spiritually. The Peravai has so far conducted six state level conferences in which lakhs of poojaris participated. The second and fourth conferences were attended by former Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu as chief guests. The Peravai'sdemand for giving pension to elderly poojaris has been accepted by the Government and nearly 4000 poojaris are now receiving a monthly pension of Rs 750. Accepting the demand of the Peravai to form a Welfare Board for poojaris, the state government formed a Village Temple Welfare Board in 2001 and the office bearers of the GKPP have been nominated as members of the Welfare Board. So far nearly, 50,000 poojaris have become members of the Board, which will receive social welfare measures from the Government. The Peravai has been instrumental in organising Self-Help-Groups in hundreds of villages of Tamil Nadu through the poojaris. The Peravai has recently conducted a state level conference to mobilise support for stopping the conversions of Hindus to alien faiths.
(FOC)
