Bangladesh Catholic Students’ Movement is a student movement in Bangladesh. This movement is solely constituted and run by Catholic students. The center of this movement is the ideology of Christ. This movement not only builds up a Christian mentality among students but also it helps to organize students in resolving different problems by the process of following the formation and educative procedures. At present we are actively working for 8 Catholic Dioceses of Bangladesh in 26 units.
History
The story of the BCSM movement in Bangladesh is not a long one. To start its activities in Bangladesh, IMCS Asian team took several initiatives way before 1971, when it was known as East Pakistan. They, from time to time visited Bangladesh and talked to our Church leaders about the movement and provided chances to our delegates to participate in different seminars, workshops, and symposiums held in different countries.
During the 1990s Ms. Helen Ting, a member of the IMCS Asian team came to visit Bangladesh and with the help of Catholic Jubo Sheba Dol (Catholic Youth Service Team) conducted several seminars with the students of Dhaka University, Jagannath University Tejgaon College and Christian Student Organization of Chattogram respectively. On 13 February 1991, a combined Meeting was held on Ramna Cathedral Parish, Dhaka and a 9-member committee were formed to organize a national Seminar in October 1991. This committee with the help of Rev. Father Benjamin Costa CSC, Dr. joseph D’ Silva, Dr. Isodore Gomes, and Catholic Jubo Sheba Dol organized a five-day (20-25 October 1991) convention at Dhaka Notre Dame College and started the movement which was named BCSM.
During April 1994, the Asian Council of IMCS Asia, an evaluation meeting was held in Thailand between two Pan Asian assemblies. The BCSM President participated in the meeting and applied to get the full membership of IMCS. On July 6, 1994, a three-member team participated in the Asia pacific assembly in Hong Kong. Being satisfied with the activities of BCSM and receiving a recommendation from Most. Rev. archbishop Michael D’ Rozario, IMCS accepted BCSM as a full member.
Aims and Objectives
Bangladesh Catholic Students’ Movement (BCSM) is a lay apostolate movement of tertiary level students of Bangladesh. Its aim is to promote a Christian lifestyle and motivate youngsters to uphold moral values to carry out its activities through all the dioceses of Bangladesh. It is affiliated with IMCS as a full member and recognized by the CBCB, It carries out its activities through the eight dioceses of Bangladesh. Its objectives are as follows:
- To promote Christian values, ideals and development of personality in the life of tertiary students i.e. in his education, social and cultural sphere.
- To develop awareness among the students regarding their responsibilities to the Nation.