Xaverian missionaries have helped Dalits in Bangladesh to stand up against discrimination.
In 1988, a 13-year-old Hindu boy visited a barber shop with his father to have a haircut in Chuknagar of Khulna district.
Before finishing the haircut, the owner of the shop, also a Hindu, started hurling abusive words and threw them out of the shop.
The “fault” of the father and the son was that they were Dalits (outcastes or untouchables) and not eligible for services from people of the four-tier Hindu caste system.
“I have grown up watching how my community has faced discrimination, abuses and injustices from society. ….
… For years, Parittran and like-minded organizations have been pushing for an anti-discrimination law to bring an end to abuses and discrimination against Dalits.
However, nothing would have been possible without outstanding service from Catholic missionaries, mostly priests from the Society of St. Francis Xavier for Foreign Missions (popularly called Xaverians), since 1952.
Two Xaverians — Father Luigi Paggi and Father Antonio Germano — pioneered social changes through services that provided education, livelihoods and unionizing of the community.
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