Hyper-indulgence in rituals and edible items is costing the Hindu community dear. The expenditure incurred to run an average temple for 12 days is enough to run a church for a year and a mosque for a year and a half.
The study is claimed to be the first-ever on the economics of Hindu temples in the state. It was carried out by a Hindu religious speaker, with the backing of the Sanathana Dharma Parishad, a conglomerate of 48 major Hindu organisations.
The study says that all the 36,400 temples in the state together spend a minimum of Rs 10,408.42 crore annually (nearly matching the state’s annual plan) on a range of items from oil and coconuts and food items to fireworks and elephants.
“The figure is highly conservative, arrived at by calculating the usage of such items in small rural temples,” said advocate S. Jayasooryan, a religious speaker who did the study.
Though extravagant in matters of faith, the Hindus seem to possess negligible social concerns, the study notes. For instance, the money spent by all the temples annually (Rs 580 crore) on payasam, sadya and prasadam is enough to construct 5 medical colleges or 12 engineering colleges or 500 hospitals or 300 CBSE schools or a bank like Catholic Syrian Bank or 5 TV channels.
The study says it is no wonder the Hindu community, which forms 56 per cent of the state’s population, owns only 2 per cent of the total schools, 17 per cent of the arts and science colleges, 21 per cent of B.Ed colleges and 8 per cent of engineering colleges.