Religious places allowed to open in India,wise decision?- by Ayushi yadav

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"GOVERNMENT TO OPEN RELIGIOUS PLACES AHEAD OF JUNE 8"

This headline piqued my curiosity amidst all the grave news of the pandemic. Being an economist I was compelled to view this within the frame of the economy. Do religious places contribute to the country's economy? Does the government earn revenue from  places that are marked with purity and spirituality?

During my research I came across certain data that gives an account of the annual wealth of  religious places, that astonished me. The data is as follows-

1)TIRUPATI TEMPLE-The temple riches are truly staggering. It is the richest temple in the country. Shockingly the cash deposited in the donation urns in the temple itself an estimated 2500-3000 crores annually.

2)SHRI VAISHNODEVI TEMPLE-The gorgeous Vaishnodevi temple in Jammu has 1.2 tonnes of gold and according to estimates, the temple is likely to collect 500  crores every year.

3)SIDDHI VINAYAK TEMPLE-The edifice temple located in Maharashtra dedicated to lord Ganesha has amassed 158 kg of gold offering worth USD 67 million till now.

4)SHRI JAGANNATH PURI TEMPLE -located in Puri, Orissa. The report says that deities are adorned with 209 kg of gold on the Suna Besha ceremony itself.

5)SHRI PADMANABHASWAMY TEMPLE-located in the city of Thiruvananthapuram dedicated to Lord Vishnu. The temple has a total asset of around 90,000 crore that includes gold, silver, diamond, brass, etc.

6) GOLDEN TEMPLE- this splendid spiritual place, one of the holiest shrine of Sikhism receives an annual income of 500 crore INR.

7)HAJI ALI DARGAH - Located in Mumbai marked with Muslim spirituality receives a large amount of donation through cash, kind, and cheques.

According to the world gold council temples such as mentioned above are the largest repositories of gold, holding nearly $ 1 trillion worth gold.Close observation of this data piqued me to question, to what use is this wealth put to? Does it help to boost the country's economy?

Obviously not, otherwise, would India have faced such a recession in the economy in this hard time when it amasses such great wealth. The wealth of the temple, churches, and mosques have really provided luxurious life to the so-called intermediates between us and god, but little of it is contributing to India's economy. Considering this, the government has planned to monetize India's hidden wealth urging them to deposit it in banks and earn interest.

But this left me in muddle situation, will this hurt devotees' sentiments? Anyway, that's a different matter...

Herein it is clear that religious places don 't contributes to the country's economy. I started with the headline that mentioned the center's decision to open the religious places. Then what caused the urgency to open the temples when the situation is really alarming. The cases of covid-19 are increasing at such a faster pace that it has placed India among the top 4 most affected countries. Secondly, though the temple association is promising that the preventive measure will be exercise effectively, but are we really sure that social distancing would be practiced, when these places are visited by lakhs of people on daily basis, for instance in Mecca Masjid, on Friday the footfall is around 6,000, whereas Mahakaleshwar temple (Madhya Pradesh ) sees an average daily footfall of 5000 to 10000 on regular days. Moreover, communal harmony will be paralyzed as there can be controversial arguments between mosques and temple gatherings and the blame game will start, comparing the number of Muslim and Hindu patients.

Truly speaking it will deteriorate the situation, further making it worse. It will only result in the rise of the cases, thus creating more burden because obviously, we don't have the proper infrastructure to treat such a large number. The situation has worsened to an extent that the stadiums are now being converted to temporary hospitals.

According to the news report, the urgency to open the temple was to overcome the financial crisis faced by the temples. Appalling! Because considering the fact that during this entire period of lockdown, there was no prasad distribution, there were no langars, no Bhandara. So have agarbattis and dhupbattis cost  led to the financial crisis? Secondly, does the intermediates don't have enough to fill their stomach, because I guess they have adopted the path of  priest and as far as I know one who adopt the path of god give away all the materialistic pleasure and luxurious life? But obviously, our priests, fathers, Mawlawi are the special ones, probably they need luxurious life and this lockdown would have reduced their comforts.

Anyway, herein I don't want to blame anybody or question someone's spirituality. But my only concern is towards the lakhs of people who are losing their loved ones, only because of carelessness and lack of proper knowledge and superstitions. Because easing down the restrictions on such places which don't demand immediate opening will obviously compel people to visit them. Furthermore, can spirituality  be maintained only through temples, or masjid, or Gurudwaras? Do we really need to go to temples to show our faith in God?

Obviously not, we are taught since childhood that God is present everywhere, so can't we sit at home and show our spirituality there itself? Can't we help society to fight with this hard time? I understand that it has been a long time and our needs demand us to move outside, but can't we really avoid going to such places until and unless there is a necessity to do so.

 It is the need of the hour that we show our concern over this issue. It is not only important but also necessary because our one wrong step may lead us to win this infamous race of so-called "most affected countries"! Think and rethink!!