Around 10 priests from south India, who are in Ranchi to attend the Conference of the Diocesan Priests of India (CDPI) that concluded on Friday, have pledged to financially support the poor students of Jharkhand to help them pursue higher education.

The 10 priests, mostly from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, have identified the meritorious but economically weak students from different communities during their daylong village exposure programme as part of the four-day conference and also expressed their desire to help construct basic amenities for the families of the poor students.

“The priests are from the southern states. During the village exposure programme in rural parts of Khunti district and Ranchi, they were touched by the poverty faced by some meritorious students. It was a spontaneous decision to help the students mostly from other communities,” said Father Raju Felix Crasta, a faculty at St Albert’s College in Ranchi and a member of CDPI.

The village exposure programme was conducted on Wednesday and the delegates of the CDPI were divided into 15 groups and sent to different villages of Khunti and Ranchi to experience the life and culture of the people.

“Getting acquainted with life and culture will help the priests to appreciate the rich diversity of our country, culture, tradition, language, living conditions, style and many more things. The delegates were supposed to have a firsthand experience of rural life,” Father Crasta added.

The villages where the priests went include Patrachauli, Dabgana, Khunti, Kapadia, Fuddi, Jamgai, Dighia, Bandi, Jaratoli, Bingaon, Kurse (all in Khunti) and Karra, Brambe in Ranchi.

The conference was attended by 140 delegates from 50 dioceses representing Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Goa, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.