Maharashtra to enact law against religious conversions, demolish illegal churches in
Maharashtra to enact law against religious conversions, demolish illegal churches in tribal districts
M.U.H
10/07/202524
Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will enact a strict law to curb cases of religious conversion and also demolish unauthorised churches that have come up across the state, especially in tribal districts, in the next six months, revenue minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule said in the state assembly on Wednesday.
The announcement was made after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs Anup Agrawal, Sudhir Mungantiwar, Sanjay Kute, and Gopichand Padalkar alleged that tribals were being converted to Christianity through illegal churches built using foreign funding for the promotion of the religion. They also demanded a mechanism to bar converted tribals from availing benefits under welfare schemes meant for Scheduled Castes (SCs). The MLAs did not specify how many such illegal churches had been built or where exactly the funding came from.
Agarwal claimed that according to an RTI reply, the number of illegal churches in tribal districts such as Palghar and Nandurbar is mounting stupendously. Villages with a population of around 2,000 have half a dozen churches, he said, adding that there are illegal churches in 199 gram panchayats in Dhule alone. The conversion is done through threats and luring through medical help, he alleged.
Mungantiwar claimed that 1,515 organisations involved in religious conversion activities received foreign funding last year, which has resulted in the reduction of the Hindu population in the state over the years. He did not mention the source of the information. In the budget session of the state assembly, the Ballarpur MLA had moved a private member’s bill seeking to make forced conversions a cognisable offence. The bill has not been tabled yet in the assembly.
Kute demanded the constitution of a review committee to ensure that converted tribals do not avail of benefits under welfare schemes meant for STs. The BJP MLAs also pressed for a strict law to prohibit religious conversion, similar to those in 12 other states and countries, such as Pakistan, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates.
In reply, revenue minister Bawankule said that the illegal churches in question would be demolished immediately, while the ones listed by the Supreme Court would be removed in the next six months.
“There is a report of the home department on the conversion through allurement and threat, and we have taken cognisance of it. The report says that the conversion happened with the help of churches. There are orders issued in May 2011 and May 2018 related to the removal of the religious structures. The divisional commissioners would be asked to chalk out plans for the removal of these structures in six months,” Bawankule said.
He also assured that the Maharashtra government will enact a strict law to curb cases of religious conversion. “The state cabinet will discuss the issues of foreign funding, the sources of the funding, the quantum of funding, and existing acts by the state and the Centre to take action in these cases. We intend to bring a stricter law to curb the cases of conversion, and it will be brought after due deliberation,” he said.
Bawankule added that a committee under the tribal development minister would be constituted to discuss the issue of converted tribals availing government scheme benefits. Tribal development minister Ashok Uike said that the committee would look into the measures to be taken to bring the converted tribals back to Hinduism rather than depriving them of ST schemes.
This isn’t the first time the BJP-led Mahayuti government has sought action against alleged forced religious conversions. In March, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had advocated the need for a “love jihad” law in Maharashtra, saying the government had received over 100,000 complaints of such cases.
Love jihad is a controversial term used by Hindu nationalists who believe that Muslim men are luring Hindu women to marry them and convert them to Islam.
Fadnavis had said that the law’s enactment will be based on the findings of a committee formed in February under state police chief Rashmi Shukla. The committee was tasked with preparing a draft for a law “to prevent love jihad and fraudulent or forced conversions.”
