Committee on Indian community’s progress holds first focus group session with Hindu organisations

SINGAPORE – A new committee set up earlier in the month to take the Indian community forward over the next five years held its first focus group discussion on Aug 28. 

Involving 18 members from 14 Hindu organisations, the session was held at the Singapore Indian Development Association (Sinda) headquarters in Beatty Road.

Joining the discussion was Senior Minister of State for Transport and Law Murali Pillai, who is leading the new committee together with Minister of State for Culture, Community and Youth and Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash.

More sessions are being planned to engage other Indian organisations, said Sinda, which will facilitate the discussions.

“The aim is to collectively identify key priority areas of concern and chart the way forward for the Indian community over the next five years,” said the Indian community’s self-help organisation.

Speaking to the media before the Aug 28 session, participant Balakrishna Madhubala, a director at Muneeswaran Community Services, said she hoped that through the session, she can spread awareness of her organisation’s work with prison inmates and former offenders, as well as tap resources of the other participating groups to expand the number of volunteers.

Muneeswaran Community Services counsels Hindu inmates and provides befriending services and guidance to those released from prison to help them rejoin society.

Ms Madhubala said it is a challenge to get a sustained group of volunteers. Having a connection with the inmates is important, and this would not happen if the volunteers keep changing, she added.

“I think what we need is for more people to come and help, for more people to be aware in our community that there is this problem, and that if they can come in, together, maybe we can stop incidents of people going back (to prison),” she said.

The new committee was announced on Aug 7 by Minister for Home Affairs K. Shanmugam who, alongside other Indian political office-holders such as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Indranee Rajah and Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment and Education Janil Puthucheary, will support its efforts. 

Mr Shanmugam said then that the committee will work with the civil service, collect feedback and look at how the community can progress and help members who are less advantaged.

Before the focus group discussion, Mr Murali told the media that Indian associations are broadly divided into four categories – religious organisations, socio-economic groups, language groups, and cultural and sports groups. He added that he and Mr Dinesh want to engage as many of them as possible in the next few months.

They want to listen to the organisations’ views and learn about the pressing issues that prevent the community from further progressing, and to discuss how to get them on a common platform to help the community.

Mr Murali noted that religious groups perform essential roles, including providing social support.

“My task is to listen to them, to see how these organisations can come together to perform these roles better,” he added.

“If you were to do it as individual organisations, it is good. But I think if we can get everybody on the same platform and be organised, coordinated, I think the situation will be much better.”