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We are going ahead with the Global Council of Zoroastrians Trust (GCZT),” emphatically announced non-executive chair Neville Shroff in his welcome address at the 13th annual meeting of the Global Working Group (GWG) on the Zoom platform on January 15, 2022 attended by around 30 community leaders from across the world. Concerned that "a few individuals are trying to undermine the Trust and attacking (legal counsel) Burjor Antia on a personal level,” Shroff reiterated that the Trust is required to "facilitate and enhance the global community” in its endeavors to "address current and future issues, poverty, youth affairs and cultural activities.”
The objective of the Trust is to "ease the pain of Zoroastrians around the world and in India where the need is the greatest,” mentioned Shroff who was disappointed that when registering the Trust with the Charity Commissioner, objections had been raised by community members "who are sometimes our own enemies. The community should take a stand against such individuals… India region will be responsible for its own trusts and there will be no interference in property and religious matters from any region. I cannot make it clearer,” stressed Shroff.
The organizers of the 12th World Zoroastrian Congress (12WZC) are hoping nearly 1,000 delegates including around 100 youth will attend the four-day proceedings in New York from July 1 to 4, 2022. Keen to see a good number avail of the early bird registration offer until end January, Congress co-chair Astad Clubwala noted, "We are very good at procrastinating in this community.” "Help us spread the word on your WhatsApp groups,” stated Congress co-chair Arzan Wadia who is also president of the Federation of Zoroastrian Associations of North America (FEZANA).
Planning ahead, efforts have been initiated to convince the "young, dynamic, forward-looking Parsi Zoroastrian Association of Singapore (PZAS)” to host the 13th WZC. Its president Homiyar Vasania who was invited to the GWG admitted that "while it would be fun if we do it, there would also be a tremendous responsibility and legacy to carry forward.” He sought a few months to discuss the issue with the community in Singapore that numbers between 300-350.
The World Zoroastrian Youth Congress will be held in London from July 22 to 26, 2023. The young organizers led by co-chairs Sheherazad Kapadia and Sanaya Khambatta appealed for funds from the global leaders as they are determined to "make everything affordable for the youth.”
To ensure that 150 full-time mobeds in India below 60 years of age and young mobeds who graduate from the Dadar Athornan Institute (DAI) do not forego mobedi in favor of more lucrative callings, Dinshaw Tamboly, chairman of The WZO (World Zoroastrian Organisation) Trust Funds (WZOTF), recommended that they be given performance based incentives depending on the rituals they perform. A core group of GWG members along with some senior priests will explore the feasibility of his proposal. In the meanwhile, under the GWG initiated effort, 117 mobeds aged over 60 years and 31 senior widows  of mobeds continue to receive monthly  grants between Rs 12,500 and 13,000 thanks to one donor from overseas and another from India.
A special welcome was accorded to Kersi Deboo, Zoroastrian representative on the National Commission for Minorities, whose mission, according to Shroff, is "to promote Parsi spirit in India and bring peace and calm within the community.” In his brief address, Deboo stated, "There are so many problems for the community in India, particularly for educational institutions, encroachment and land grabbing of Parsi properties… I will try and solve by bringing them up before the higher authorities.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Congress midst Covid
Planning for a "wonderful and successful 12WZC” while Covid waxes and wanes across the continents, Clubwala was "hopeful everything should be relatively open by July. Safety will be our number one priority,” he assured. He invited GWG members to a pre-Congress dinner on June 30 at their Dar-e-Mehr. Wadia said the "biggest challenge” is to spread word about the Congress as many have told him "we don’t read emails anymore,” preferring to turn to WhatsApp and other social media platforms.
Yet another difficulty Wadia foresaw was getting visas for Indians and Iranians as he had heard "there is a huge backlog. If people have not renewed, now is the time,” he urged. In addition to some common events within the overall schedule, age specific activities have been planned. Wadia recommended members to register and proceed with reservations at New York Hilton Midtown, the venue of the Congress, convinced they have secured a very good deal with room rates of $ 250 (Rs 18,850) per night which he was sure would work out cheaper than airbnb accommodation that should factor in commute costs too. In the current volatile situation due to Covid, Firoz Pestonji of Perth enquired whether registrants would get a refund if unable to travel. Wadia stated that as per their refund policy, in case of inability to attend due to Covid related causes, the amount could be returned after deducting a small cancellation fee.
Rustom Engineer of Houston enquired whether there would be any activity like a cruise after the Congress. "Nobody wants to do cruises anymore,” said Wadia. "We might look at a seven-day excursion to Canada. By mid-February we will put you in touch with a travel agent.” Clubwala stated that while options of different regional tours will be announced soon, they were trying very hard to arrange for a firework cruise on July 4 which is celebrated as Independence Day in America.
A 75-minute session at the Congress will be devoted to GWG. "We have to hold the attention of the audience to make the session interesting,” stated Mistry who has been asked to moderate that session too. As pointed out Clubwala, "The heads of Zoroastrian associations may know about GWG but the rest of the Zoroastrian world is not aware. On the 12WZC Program Committee, 80% asked ‘Who’s that?’ People don’t know who we are. A visual component would be very important. You want people sitting on the edge of their seats.” Considering this a promotional exercise for GWG, Balsara was requested to send in his inputs.
Meher Bhesania of Dubai mentioned that her new five-minute video People for Peace that was screened at the GWG meet conveys the "vision, values, mission and accomplishments” of the world body. Tamboly recommended that a "two-minute clip be incorporated to show the work actually done by GWG.”  "Nothing talks like a film,” stressed Wadia. Frequently dependent on stock images from the Internet, Bhesania regretted, "Unfortunately our community does not have good pictures/images to share. That is one hurdle we need to cross.” Once the GCZT registration is accomplished, "we will go ahead full steam with advertisements and creation of a website,” she added.
Forty applications have been received from  youngsters involved in community activities in their areas who are keen to participate in the Congress, announced FEZANA past president Katayun Kapadia who is the GWG communications coordinator as also the administrator for the 12WZC. The Zarathushti Youth Across Borders (ZYAB) module of the Congress had sought applications from deserving  students in the 18-25 age bracket living outside of North America. Calculating $ 3,000 (Rs 2,21,718) as the cost per head to participate in the Congress, the ZYAB team has managed to raise $ 31,000 (Rs 23,14,121) of the targeted $ 75,000 (Rs 55,98,678). In addition to FEZANA, contributions have come from ZTFE, WZOTF, Karachi Zarthosti Banu Mandal, she stated, appealing for more support that could help "bring youth to this Congress.”

 

 

 

 

"Neville is extremely keen to take the next Congress to a new location,” stated Mistry who currently resides in Singapore and has assured Vasania all support having organized the 8WZC in London in 2005 when he was president of ZTFE. Cooperation was also promised from other Congress organizers like Pestonji and Bhesania who had successfully managed with limited manpower. "You only pressurize good and capable people,” continued Mistry. "Homiyar is an investment banker and now runs an asset management company. He is very young and modest,” stated Mistry appreciating Vasania’s foresight to buy the property for Zoroastrian House and rent it to PZAS "at a peppercorn (negligible) rate.”
"This is a task we have never done before though I am personally convinced we can do it,” said Vasania, describing the community in Singapore as "relatively young; a lot of us are first generation settlers.” Since they have a floating population, he was not sure how many may leave Singapore before the Congress comes up. Their Zoroastrian cemetery has been in existence for over 200 years and the history of the community in this region will be on display "in a small museum at the Zoroastrian House which we hope to inaugurate by Navroz,” he said.

 

Priority to priests
"The senior mobeds are well looked after thanks to Neville Shroff arranging funds (from one of the trusts with which he is associated) and a donor from India giving a matching donation. What requires to be done is looking after young mobeds. Give it priority and bring it back on the front burner,” beseeched Tamboly. He was referring to mobeds under 60 years of age earning less than Rs 50,000 per month who need performance based impetus to ensure that they do not change their profession when unable to make two ends meet or find suitable matrimonial matches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As per the note he circulated, he felt that 20% incentive should be offered to 40-50 priests performing higher liturgical ceremonies in India. Thus for the yazeshne ceremony for which a behdin pays Rs 7,000 of which Rs 2,750 each is paid to the two priests, Tamboly recommended that Rs 550 more be given as incentive to each priest. For the vendidad ceremony that costs Rs 20,000 of which Rs 8,000 is given to each mobed, Rs 1,600 should be given as incentive. For the 18-day nirangdin ceremony that costs Rs 4,50,000 with each priest paid Rs 1,80,000, an incentive of Rs  36,000 should be offered. "If the situation is not addressed with alacrity and rationality, the consequences would be dire in the next couple of decades,” cautioned Tamboly.
He was equally concerned about the future of recently ordained mobeds. According to the statistics that he shared, on an average three priests pass out from DAI each year. Seven mobeds in five years take up priesthood as a full-time profession after passing out from DAI. "It is therefore very essential to ensure that this group of very young mobeds be provided sufficient financial incentive to motivate them to pursue mobedi as a full-time profession and not seek employment elsewhere,” he believed.
When Balsara wondered whether the community needs to draw up "a sustainable plan for the future… build a corpus through which subsidies can come,” Tamboly responded, "They are looking at today; not the future... Corpus donations in India are a problem. The interest rates that were 15% earlier have today fallen to five percent.” The Empowering Mobeds group is getting registered with the Charity Commissioner, reported Tamboly. "Get some of these mobeds to the WZC,” stated Balsara. "Give them a platform,” said Mistry.
"Change the mindset of the community,” urged different GWG leaders. Rivetna felt "every family should contribute towards mobeds. We need to change the algorithm.” Shroff maintained, "Instead of depending on the overseas community,” there should be a plan for income generation within India: "There are so many people of affluence who can do it.”
"There are many community members dying intestate (without making a will) or anjuman assets going to waste,” pointed out Yazdi Tantra who being on the operations and entrepreneurship standing committees of the GWG felt that community associations should be proactive in this regard. Knowing that "agiaries have some asset generating income, we need to adopt an inflation adjusted revenue model to resolve the issue of poverty in priests that is endemic,” said Bombay Parsi Punchayet trustee Xerxes Dastur.
The demographics of the community in India show an 18% decline every decade. At this rate, by the end of the century the community may number 9,000 in India. "Poverty in the community is increasing. For every earning member there are five dependents,” said Tamboly appealing to the global community to contribute to Parsi families in India adversely afflicted by Covid due to loss of salary, loss of income among the self-employed, lack of manpower to harvest crops, mobeds earning less due to lower footfalls in agiaries, mounting medical expenses... During the first wave when The Prayer Hall reported 45 fatalities due to Covid, WZOTF was able to raise Rs 25,487,120 that was disbursed to 1,515 individuals. In the second wave that saw 73 Parsis lose their lives, the amount of Rs 21,350,066 raised was distributed to 1,277 individuals. In the first half of January already nine had succumbed to Covid during the third wave, said Tamboly, urging community members to once again contribute magnanimously.