Nirmalaraj at Baguio
Arulanandu Nirmalaraj - Province of Dumka-Raiganj
Nirmalaraj at Baguio
Arulanandu Nirmalaraj - Province of Dumka-Raiganj
Arulanandu Nirmalaraj comes from the Dumka-Raiganj province of the Society of Jesus. Born on January 20, 1958 at Nagarikathan, Tamilnadu in South India, he joined the Society on May 29, 1977 and was ordained a priest on May 30, 1993. The Dumka-Raiganj Province is in the northeast of India and it covers the area of three ecclesiastical dioceses, namely Dumka and Purnea dioceses in Bihar and Raiganj in West Bengal.
Nirmal has been working in St. Ignatius high school, Majlispur, West Bengal as Assistant Headmaster and as hostel superintendent. Majlispur is a rural village. The majority of the local population belong to a tribal community and most of them are illiterate. There are also Hindus, most of whom belong to Scheduled Castes. Given the nature of the local population, the majority of the students in the school come from the Scheduled Tribe and the Scheduled Caste communities. They profess different religions, namely Christianity, Hinduism and Islam. Some students are refugees from Bangladesh. They are settled in the neighborhood of Majlispur.
The school has two hostels attached to it. One is for boys and the other is for girls. The hostel for boys is taken care of by the Jesuits and the one for girls by Sisters. Only students of the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, preferably Christians, are admitted to the hostels. Each hosteler receives an annual hostel stipend of Rs.3000 (about 72 U.S. Dollars) from the Indian government. This is a great help; for the students, without which most of them would not be able to attend schools. They are given moral formation and education in the hostels.
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the Jesuit College of Central New York.E-Mail: bucko@maple.lemoyne.edu
Page Last Updated: November 26,1998
