By Fr Sunil Pinto SDB for BIS Mumbai

Vadodara: Bishop Sebastião Mascarenhas of Baroda has recently appointed Father Christopher Nadar SDB, belonging to the community of Snehalaya Don Bosco, Vishwamitri, as Director of the Diocesan Commission for Migrants.

This appointment was made after consulting the Salesian provincial and getting his assent.

Vadodara's industrial estates, construction sites, and markets draw a large migrant workforce. Many workers come from the tribal districts of eastern Gujarat, such as Dahod, Panchmahal and others from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. Most work without written contracts and live in slums or temporary shelters near work sites. Away from home, they struggle to get ration cards, health care, and schooling for their children. The city's waste pickers, who collect and sort much of its recyclable waste, face the same exclusion. They often work without protective gear or social security.

Father Nadar has been part of Suraksha Migrants Desk (SMD) at Snehalaya Don Bosco for some time, leading its work among migrant labourers, migrant communities, and waste pickers in the city. With his team, he advocates for their rights and works to protect them. The desk works with government departments and civil society organizations to make sure these workers and families get the support and protection the law offers them.

As Director, Father Nadar will now work towards the goals of the Western Regional Bishops' Council (WRBC), the Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI), and the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), applied to local conditions in the diocese. He will draw up annual plans at the parish, deanery, and diocesan levels in line with the Diocesan Pastoral Plan and propose a budget for each. He will also coordinate and monitor regular programmes for migrants in the parishes. He will attend meetings of the regional and national commissions and report back to the diocese.

Father Nadar has also been asked to extend the work to Surat, about 150 km south of Vadodara, and to explore restarting work with migrants there. Surat's textile and diamond industries rely heavily on migrant labour. Its power loom sector alone employs an estimated 700,000 people, most of them from Ganjam district in Odisha.

In his letter, the bishop thanked Father Nadar for taking on the responsibility and noted that he already carries full-time pastoral duties. "We shall work within our contingencies," Bishop Mascarenhas wrote.