Abstract
Rehabilitation measures along with the healing ministry of the Salvation Army formed a better contribution to the cause of evangelization of South Travancore. The Army’s educational programmes in South Travancore had an impact on the culture of the people of the region. Its aim is to removing illiteracy of the people. The schools established in different parts of the country failed to give equal treatment to the poor and the untouchables. Some of the schools admitted people from different castes, but did not give fair treatment to the low castes. In order to eradicate these evils and to educate the down – trodden the Army started its boarding and day schools in different parts of the country. In this article on effort has been made to bring out the rehabilitation measures taken for the poor and needy Salvation Army in South Travancore Princely State during the ninteenth and twentieth centuries.
Introduction
The Salvation Army’s patronage of education had an impact on the cultural progress of the poor untouchables of India. The Salvation Army established its activities in Travancore to give uplift to the poor untouchables. The unique achievements of the Army in the spiritual, educational and medical fields did not give its leaders the desired satisfaction. Hence it went one step further to see the sorrows and sufferings of the dejected and devised a series of rehabilitation measures.
Training centre for the Handicapped people
The Salvation Army’s Vocational Training Centre for the physically handicapped at Aramboly stands as a landmark in the Army’s endeavor of reducing the sufferings and sorrows of the millions. It is an off shoot of the Catherine Booth Hospital, Nagercoil started by Dr. Harry Williams. It was installed in an old Salvation Army hospital building at Aramboly in 1968 with a capital of forty thousand rupees. It was mainly started to give social recognition to those who recovered from leprosy but with a bleak and meaningless existence and also the physically handicapped victims affected with disease like polio and those met with accidents.1
Impressed by the interest of Dr. Harry Williams in his endeavoured of undertaking rehabilitation schemes, the international headquarters of the Salvation Army appointed Captain George Scott to over see this venture. Dr. Williams entrusted the management of the centre into the hands of Sunder Egbert, one of his former handicapped polio patient and confined to a wheel chair. He came from Vellore, where he worked in a Swedish Red Cross Rehabilitation Project.2 The centre started functioning with three staff and eight trainees. It aimed at finding suitable job to the physically handicapped men after training and adjusts the cost of training by earned income. The training in the centre and the job opportunities of the trainees promoted co-operation among the trainees and paved the way for fuller social integration.
Now the centre gives training to fifty persons at a time. All of them are ex-leprosy and physically handicapped and came from different castes, languages and regions. In the centre all of them eat and live together forgetting caste distinctions. To them everything is free in the centre and a small amount of pocket money is also given to meet their daily expenses. Even though the programme is residential it is not protective or protected. So at one point the trainee has to stand of his own, the centre provides facilities for the production and sale of products, which give them confidence in life as ordinary citizens of the nation. They produce domestic steel furnitures, hospital and office steel furnitures and also original and spare parts for large industries like the cotton textile industries and electric and electronic industries. The leprosy patient who got relief from his disease and trained for a job through the centre is legally permitted to move in the society and work in different capacities as free citizens.3
Other Rehabilitation Schemes
The Salvation Army got the provision to look after the welfare of the poor untouchable women Salvationists. The Indian society from the Vedic Age considered the female children as a burden to their parents. The Salvation Army tried to keep them careful citizens of the Nation. Therefore the training given to the physically handicapped extended to the women also. The women centre was established at Nagercoil in 1970. It admits very poor and handicapped women and offers training in sewing, embroidery and secretarial training.4
The problem of the poor untouchable girls attracted the attention of the Army. These girls who would like to continue their studies very often discontinued it due to lack of patronage and resources. For these dejected section the Army gave shelter in the hostels and extended patronage to their studies. In the hostel everything is free and is given inducement to complete their studies. The London Head Quarters of the Army supplies uniforms to the people.5
The habitations of the poor untouchables are very often subjected to the attacks of flood and fire. To support the affected Salvationists in the critical hours, the Army keeps a fund called Relief Fund. The Army had the programme to fight against famine and epidemics. In times of famine, food materials were given to the affected people. In the beginning days of the Army in South Travancore it had Village Lending Scheme. It saved the life of the poor village Salvationists. A large number of the poor village Salvationists enjoyed the benefits of the scheme. But the scheme came to be close due to the establishment of Co-operative Credit Societies in the villages under the patronage of the government.6 However, in every respect the poor Salvationists received shelter.
Conclusion
The Salvation Army did a lot of contribution for the spiritual and material wellbeing of the poor and the uncared untouchables in Kanyakumari District. The Army provides asylum to the abandoned children as well as the physically handicapped women in different centres. It solved the problems of drinking water, fuel, village industries, markets, medical facilities, village schools, sanitation, etc., in many of the villages. It destroyed the yoke of slavery in South Travancore and put the poor untouchables in the same rank with others in every respect.
– D. Vinoba Gladis
Ph.D. Research Scholar, Department of History, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli.
References
1. Suder Egbert, “The Salvation Army Vocational Training Centre for the Physically Handicapped,” (Pamphlet published at Aramboly in 1982).
2. The Salvation Army South Eastern India Territory Centenary Celebration Souvenir, October, 1982, p.32.
3. Pamphlet by Sunder Egbert, Op.cit.
4. The Salvation Army South Eastern Indian Centenary Souvenir, October, 1982, p.33.
5. Edger Rowan, The Church Army, London, 1905, p.29.
6. Cyril Barnes, God’s Army, William Clow and Sons Ltd., London, 1978, p. 13-15.