BICPAJ, the Bangladesh Inter-Religious Council for Peace and Justice

BICPAJ is one of the oldest such organizations anywhere in the world – is a religious non-profit NGO, which holds monthly discussion meetings on justice and peace issues. The council also runs projects for youth and poor children. BICPAJ’s peace education center consists of staff trained in conflict resolution, education, research, women’s empowerment and basic training in conflict resolution.
Training programs focus on young people, women and ethnic tribal people of Bangladesh.

BICPAJ, founded in 1983, is an fully inter-faith and human rights oriented organization established by a group of like-minded Muslims and Christians.

It is not sponsored by or affiliated to any church, mosque or similar body. Our Chair-person is always a Muslim, and most of the members are Muslims, men and women, but our ideology is very much Bible-inspired and with Liberation Theology leanings. Aso BICPAJ uses and promotes the philosophy of Gandhian non-Violence. Our other Idols include Paulo Freire and Martin Luther King.

BICPAJ has an office, a committee, and regular training programmes. We engage in adult literacy programs and street children’s upliftment. We are based in Dhaka City and we have members all over the country.
BICPAJ is quite actively involved in the Peace process of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, for the ethnic tribal people.

Every year we conduct at least two trainings: Conflict Resolution, Adult Literacy, Women’s Empowerment etc.


Objectives:
BICPAJ’s objective is to bring about a society based on justice and peace. As its medium to achieve this end it engages actively in the campaign for adult literacy, which it sees as the key to social development and human understanding.

Activities:
BICPAJ runs about 30 schools for adults in Dhaka city and few others outside the metropolitan area. It uses its own textbook, Ja Chai (What I Want), which is based on the methods of Paulo Freire.

FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE

This organisation endeavours to bridge religious differences for the sake of tangible development.

The non-government organization Bangladesh Inter-Religious Council for Peace and Justice (BICPAJ) has been working in Bangladesh since 1983. The slogan of this organisation is “Peace and Justice”. British citizen Rev. John P Hastings played a pivotal role in establishing this organization. Since 1951 he has been involved in different development activities in West Bengal, particularly for improving the life of the Santals. During the Bangladesh war of independence, Hastings provided health services at the refuge camps in Salt Lake, Calcutta, where millions of Bangladeshis were sheltered.

In 1972 Hastings returned to his country, but returned to Bangladesh in 1982. The following year he established this organization. It has developed a network of several thousand across the country. It organizes meetings, seminars and rallies to promote inter-religious friendship. These have been organized to convey the message of peace and justice to difference sections of people.

Brother Jarlath D’Souza, Secretary of BICPAJ, says, “We initiated a practice of engaging people of different religions in discussions across the table so that they can communicate with each other on various sensitive issues. We did this, say, following the attack on the Twin Towers in USA, the destruction of Babri mosque, etc. We discussed the challenges such incidents create for people and how those challenges can be overcome.”

“The basic tenet of our discussions is religious values like what religion says about women’s education, reducing poverty, etc. We also organise training on ‘Violence Resolution’ for our contact group members all over the country,” he says. The organization is planning to hold similar training programs in Chittagong Hill Tracts area, he says, adding, “This is an important area of the country, partly because of international communities are often curious about this region. Here our main message will be to urge people to stay in their own position and shun conflict. As you know the Hill Tracts area has often turned into a battlefield as Bengalis and hill people try to establish their own authority.”
Hastings also took interest in providing education to illiterate people.

According to him, allowing a person to remain illiterate is tantamount to crime. He was interested in promoting adult literacy. Hastings believed illiterate adults in Bangladesh were talented and their only drawback was that they were not literate. He accordingly establis'hed schools to provide literacy classes to adults. There were 30 such schools.

Hastings himself wrote eight books for these courses. He also published a collection of plays.
The first one is called Ja Chai. The first page of the book has a picture of money because everybody understands money and you can teach best if you are using something familiar, comments Brother D’Souza.
The organization has been running a school for street children where every Saturday children are taught. It also has life skill programs. Brother Jarlath D’Souza says,

“We try to make them think differently and dream of a better future.”


by Shafiq Rahman, PROBENEWS