NEW DELHI (UCAN) -- Principals of India's Catholic schools have met to discuss ways to implement a Church policy to bring education to the poor and socially deprived classes.

Some 450 Catholic principals, mostly priests and nuns, met in New Delhi Nov. 7-10 for the first such gathering to discuss the Indian Church's education policy, Salesian Father K.J. Antony, the organizer, told UCA News. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of India released the policy last May.

Father Antony is national secretary of the All India National Association of Catholic Schools (AINACS).

The policy is the result of years of studies, surveys and discussion scrutinizing the Church's educational involvement since the 16th-century arrival of Portuguese missioners.

The Indian bishops discussed the policy during their 2006 biennial meeting, amid growing accusations from Hindu groups that education was a facade to convert tribal people and poor villagers. During several Church meetings in the past, Catholic educational institutions also heard accusations that they were neglecting the poor and serving only the elite.

At the end of the biennial meeting, the bishops asked their education commission to formulate a policy stressing liberation as the aim of Catholic education. They also wanted to ensure that Catholic institutions show concern for marginalized groups, especially girls, dalit and tribal groups.

Dalit, at the bottom of India's traditional caste system, once were called "untouchables." According to some Church sources, more than 60 percent of Christians in India come from dalit and tribal groups.

The policy document the bishops issued stresses that "all Catholics are admitted to our schools on the essential merit that they are Catholics." They insist that no Catholic child "should be deprived of quality education because of lack of means."

At the AINACS meeting, experts who drafted the policy explained that education must be seen as a tool for liberation from social, cultural and economical bonds, Patrician Brother Augustine Paul told UCA News. The brother, a member of the organizing team, said the experts also impressed on principals that it is the school administrators' responsibility to implement the policy.

The meeting primarily gathered school officials to familiarize them with the policy, because "we never had anything similar before," Brother Paul explained. "It is the policy of the whole Church in India and we are all bound to follow it," he added.

According to Church statistics, the 160 Catholic dioceses and 239 Religious congregations in India together run some 20,275 educational institutions serving more than 10 million students. About 60 percent of these institutions are in villages, and serve poor, marginalized rural people.

Brother Paul acknowledged it is "nearly impossible" to bring together the heads of all Catholic educational institutions, so AINACS is planning regional meetings to explain the 60-page education policy.

The document suggests a monitoring system for policy implementation so "schools will be serious in implementing it," Brother Paul noted.

Moreover, the existence of a policy will help bishops and other Church authorities "discipline" schools that do not follow the policy's spirit, the Religious educator said.

One suggestion is for schools and congregations to set apart funds for the education of poor Christian students, Brother Paul elaborated. Educating the poor has financial implications, he added, saying that unless these are addressed, the policy cannot be implemented.

The Patrician brother also said AINACS plans to bring together more institution heads to build mutual support and a sense of belonging, and to share problems in this "mission we together carry out."

Brother Paul also said the new education policy "will go a long way" toward instilling "togetherness" among Church people involved in education. The policy asserts that all Catholic educational institutions work toward the "single-pointed liberative" aim.

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