India: contribution to the new primary school for Dalit children

The Holy See has contributed to the diocese of Chingleput in India for the construction of a new primary school that will allow Dalit children and girls to have access to basic school education, without distinction of creed. 

In this area, located about seventy miles south of Madras on the eastern coast of the Indian peninsula, there is a Catholic community of about 150,000 faithful, most of them Dalits. 

37% of Dalits live below the poverty line; 54% of children are malnourished; 83 newborns out of 1000 die within an year of age and as regards education, 45% of Dalits are illiterate.