TURA: The former Bishop of Tura, Bishop Emeritus George Mamalassery, has been conferred with the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters, Honoris Causa (Hon D. Lit) during the 5th Convocation of the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya by the Governor of Meghalaya, Tathagata Roy in the presence of Vice Chancellors and eminent academicians on Monday. The Honorary Degree has been conferred in recognition of the bishop’s outstanding contribution to the greater good of the society especially in the field of education, health, spirituality, brotherhood, social reform and communal harmony.
It may be mentioned that Bishop George Mamalassery, a Catholic Priest and Bishop is a well known Social Worker and Educationist, who worked tirelessly to uplift the socio-economic status of the people of Garo Hills in Meghalaya for almost 60 years. From his ordination as a Priest on 24th April, 1960, he voluntarily joined to serve in Garo Hills which at that time was a remote, hilly terrain infested with malaria and wild animals. After working at Tura, Baghmara and Dalu for many years as an assistant Priest and later as a Parish priest, Pope John Paul II appointed him as the first Bishop of Tura on February 8th 1979 and the magnitude of his contribution is visible particularly in the health, education and social sectors.
His contribution in the field of Education can be seen from his network of educational institutions across Garo Hills region and reaching out even to the remotest and unreachable areas and till date he has opened about 208 Lower and Upper Primary Schools, 28 Secondary and Higher Secondary Schools, 2 Premier colleges in various parts of Garo hills which have benefitted more than 50000 students belonging to the indigenous tribal communities.
In order to make the education accessible to poor children and under his guidance, scholarship grants were started and continue to be given to the poor and deserving students. He has also set up 76 hostels for both boys and girls which facilitates children from far and inaccessible villages to have formal education and has also partnered with the government to run the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Jengjal, Baghmara, Samanda and Songsak for the benefit of the drop out girl students in the area.
Witnessing the lack of health facilities in the region, Bishop George began what can be termed the biggest health project outside of the government in the region.He helped to establish 34 dispensaries in five districts of Garo Hills which provides basic health care facilities and so far about 100,000 people have received preventive and curative services. In addition to these, he has set up the 150 bedded Holy Cross Hospital Tura in 1993 and this premier institute has contributed a lot to the health sector of Garo Hills region. He had also founded the Rino Simonetti School of Nursing in the year 2006 in order to prepare the young local women for general nursing and midwifery and so far 250 students belonging to various ethnic groups of North east have successfully passed out from this institution.
Further, for the welfare of the Differently abled and Senior Citizens, Bishop George had initiated the Monfort Center for Education in order to specially care for the differently abled and visibly impaired persons. The center consists of a school and hostel facility for the visually and auditory impaired and a Vision, Speech and Audiometric Centre including a study centre for B.Ed in Special Education. Old age homes have also been set up in Tura and William nagar to take care of the abandoned senior citizens in the region which is run by the Sisters of Missionaries of Charity.
As a social worker, he led the Catholic church to play a crucial role during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War helping the displaced and the homeless people from the neighbouring country to be accommodated in the church parish at Dalu border town as thousands of frightened refugees streaked in to escape the fighting and the innumerable atrocities being committed by the East Pakistan forces in that country.
The bishop’s social work did not end there. He is instrumental in the establishment and growth of BAKDIL (Diocesan social service centre) which is one of the best performing NGO in the North east region. At present, the organisation is partnering with the Government of Meghalaya and is looking after 5 PHCs in the remote areas of Garo Hills region under the Public Private Partnership besides other activities.