Kerala Catholic diocese offers financial aid to families with 5 or more kids

Pala: The Catholic Church diocese in Kerala's Pala has categorically decided to provide financial assistance to families under its diocese having five or more children. The couples who got married after 2000 and the parent of five and more children will get Rs 1,500 monthly financial assistance.

"It was announced as part of the 'Year of the Family' celebrations by the church. This initiative is to provide assistance to large families especially in the post-COVID-19 scenario. We will start receiving applications soon and most probably, we will be able to hand out assistance from August," Fr Joseph Kuttiankal, who heads the Family Apostolate under the church, told PTI.

The scheme was announced at an online meeting by Bishop Joseph Kallarangatt as part of the 'Year of the Family' celebrations of the church. When asked whether this move was part of a pastoral letter issued by the Changanacherry Archdiocese in 2019 suggesting that the share of the Christian population in Kerala has dwindled over the years, Fr Kuttiankal said that issue was a "reality". "It's a reality that the population of the Christian community is going down. Our growth rate is less. That is also a reason but the immediate reason is to provide assistance to the large families who are finding it difficult to make both ends meet due to the pandemic," he said.

"During the formation of Kerala, Christians were the second-largest community in the state. But now, the community is only 18.38% of the state's total population. In recent years, the birth rate in the Christian community has decreased to 14%," read the letter, issued by Archbishop Mar Joseph Perumthottam in 2019. Fr. Kuttiankal said the scheme was announced for couples who got married after 2000 because "the elder children of couples who started a family before that year must have completed their education and begun contributing to their respective families".

The church has also announced free delivery care at a hospital run by it to the women who are delivering their fourth child and also that the children who are born as the fourth or subsequently in a family will be given scholarships to study at an engineering college run by the church. Back in 2011, proposals in the draft Kerala Women's Code Bill, by the Kerala government to penalise families violating the two-child norm had prompted Hindu, Christian and Muslim leaders to rise collectively in protest against it.