Kerala temple priests to undergo training for courteous behaviour towards devotees

Thiruvananthapuram: No surprise if devotees feel more courteous behaviour from priests and staff of Kerala temples hereafter as the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), that manages around 1,250 temples in Kerala, is initiating an orientation programme for the temple priests and staff.

Apart from ensuring a pleasant experience for devotees, TDB also hopes that the initiative will help enhance temples' revenue with priests and staff offering proper guidance to devotees on conducting special poojas to address their woes.

The training programme titled 'Bhakta Sukhadam Kshetra Darshanam' (Happiness for devotees from temple visit) will begin from Tuesday in Thiruvananthapuram. A total of 15 classes will be conducted to cover 5,000 odd temple priests and staff. Former IAS officer M Nandakumar, who is a known numerologist and astrologist, will be imparting the training.

TDP president P S Prasanth told DH that the project aims at ensuring a pleasant experience for devotees at temples. "There used to be complaints from devotees regarding the attitude of some temple staff and priests. The priests and staff should be able to amicably communicate with devotees as temples are places where people visit to get happiness. Moreover, all temple staff and priests need to be well aware of the rituals and traditions of the temples," he said.

He also said that the initiative could in turn enhance revenue from temples. Once devotees freely interact with priests, the priests could give proper advice on conducting special poojas that suit the devotees.

Prasanth said that ensuring revenue was also quite important to the TDB as only around 60 of the 1,250 odd temples were now earning revenue more than expenses. Expenses of around 600 temples are three times higher than the revenue of those temples. Major chunk of TDB's revenue is spent on paying salaries. The revenue from temples need to be enhanced for carrying out development and renovation of temples, he said.