CCA Congratulates Magsaysay Award Winner Bezwada Wilson

Programme Review and Programme Direction

Two key deliberative sessions during the 15th CCA General Assembly are the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions.

The Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions will both be conducted in three groups relating to the CCA’s programme areas, namely, (i) General Secretariat (GS), (ii) Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF); and (iii) Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia (PD).

Assembly participants will have the option to join one of three groups for both the Programme Review and Programme Direction sessions. For the sake of coherence, the assigned group will remain the same for both sessions.

General Secretariat

The General Secretariat oversees the coordination of programmatic, administrative, and financial activities of the organization. The GS comprises various departments such as church and ecumenical relations, relations with ecumenical partners, finance, administration, and communications, which provide crucial support and services for the implementation of programs and contribute to the overall functioning of the CCA.

Programmes: Relations with member churches and councils, ecumenical partners; advocacy at the United Nations; ecumenical responses to emerging issues in solidarity; income development and finance; and communications.

Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)

Under the MU programme area, the CCA accompanies Asian churches to strengthen their mission and witness in multi-religious contexts, revitalise and nurture church unity and the Asian ecumenical movement, and develop contextual theological foundations.

Programmes: Asian Movement for Christian Unity (AMCU); Congress of Asian Theologians (CATS); Asian women doing theology in the context of wider ecumenism; contextualisation of theology in Asia and ecumenical theological education.

The EF programme area focuses on nurturing and developing ecumenical leaders in Asia. The programme aims to enhance spiritual formation and theological understanding, enabling people to actively engage in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration.

Programmes: Ecumenical Enablers’ Training in Asia (EETA); Asian Ecumenical Institute (AEI); Youth and Women Leadership Development; Ecumenical Spirituality and Nurturing of Contextual Liturgical Traditions; Asia Sunday

Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)

The BP programme area is dedicated to promoting peace, justice, and reconciliation in Asia’s diverse contexts. Through training, advocacy, and dialogue, the programme addresses the root causes of conflicts, empowers communities, and fosters sustainable peacebuilding initiatives.

Programmes: Pastoral Solidarity Visits; Churches in Action for Moving Beyond Conflict and Resolution; Young Ambassadors of Peace in Asia (YAPA); Ecumenical Women’s Action Against Violence (EWAAV); Eco-Justice for Sustainable Peace in the Oikos.

The PD programme area focuses on promoting justice, human rights, and social transformation in Asia. Through advocacy, capacity-building, and raising awareness, the programme addresses systemic injustice, empowers marginalised communities, and advocates for prophetic actions and meaningful change.

Programmes: Human Rights advocacy; Migration, Statelessness, and Trafficking in Persons; Asian Ecumenical Disability Advocacy Network; Asian Advocacy Network on the Dignity and Rights of Children (AANDRoC); Ecumenical Solidarity Accompaniment and Diakonia in Asia (ESADA); Health and Healing; Good Governance; Action Together to Combat HIV and AIDS in Asia (ATCHAA).

First Preference:
Mission in Unity and Contextual Theology (MU) and Ecumenical Leadership Formation and Spirituality (EF)
Second Preference:
Building Peace and Moving Beyond Conflicts (BP) and Prophetic Diakonia and Advocacy (PD)
29 July 2016

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CCA Congratulates Magsaysay Award Winner  Bezwada Wilson

Christian Conference of Asia congratulated Bezwada Wilson, an ardent campaigner working against manual scavenging, who is being honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2016. Wilson has been the national Convenor of the  Safai Karmachari Andolan, and working to eradicate manual scavenging during the past three decades.

The General Secretary of Christian Conference of Asia, Dr. Mathews George Chunakara, congratulated Bezwada Wilson and said, “the recognition to Wilson will be a moral boosting for the selfless work of Wilson and Safai Karmachari Andolan activists who have been struggling to uphold rights and dignity of a large number of  Dalit manual scavengers  living in vulnerable conditions”.

The Magsaysay Award Committee was  impressed with the work of Wilson which focussed on ensuring the inalienable rights and dignity of hundreds of thousands of  Dalits engaged in manual scavenging. Manual scavenging is the work of removing, by hand, human excrement from dry latrines and carrying, on the head, the baskets of excrement to designated disposal sites.  A hereditary occupation, manual scavenging involves 180,000 Dalit households cleaning the 790,000 public and private dry latrines across India; 98 percent of scavengers are meagerly paid women and girls. While the Indian Constitution and other laws in India prohibit dry latrines and the employment of manual scavengers, these have not been strictly enforced since the government itself is the biggest violator.

Bezwada Wilson, a member of the Church of South India,  was born to a Dalit family in Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka state of India. Although his family had been engaged in manual scavenging for generations, he was spared the labour to be the first in his family to pursue a higher education. Treated as an outcast in school and acutely aware of his family’s lot, Wilson became a crusader in eradicating manual scavenging.

Wilson has been working for the self-emancipation of Dalit manual scavengers  during the past three decades, and he stresses that manual scavenging is not a sectarian problem: “You are addressing all members of society, because no human being should be subjected to this inhuman practice”.

The CCA General Secretary also added that “the issue of manual scavenging in India and the need for ecumenical advocacy was highlighted during the public issues discussions at the last CCA General Assembly held in May 2015 by Rev. Dr. Y. Mosess. The strategic programme plan of CCA for the next five years adopted by the executive and programme committees of CCA already includes advocacy initiatives at the international level by CCA in collaboration with Dalit organisations working in India, and a national consultation, already scheduled to take place in December 2016, will focus on ecumenical advocacy on abolition of manual scavenging in India.