NEW DELHI: 8th November '04 -- The association of province delegates for Social Communication, India, known as BOSCOM-India, met from 4-6 November in New Delhi for its 6th General Assembly.  The assembly theme was 'Leading Youth through Opinion Generation'.

    The assembly took up the Church's concern for media ministry as expressed by the 26th General Body Meeting of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of India.  While fully upholding the CBCI guidelines on Social Communications and reaffirming commitment to media ministry, the BOSCOM-India assembly noted 'the insufficient space for communication and creative expression given to our young people by Church and society.'

    The BOSCOM final statement is a response to this: 'Today when the young are being used as mere consumers and made targets of exploitation, we commit ourselves to helping them become critical users of media. We advocate their concerns providing them a forum for creative expression.  We identify young talent and train them to be active players in the media.'

    In particular, BOSCOM-India expressed the desire that Bosco Information Services (BIS), a communications network of the Salesians in India 'act as a forum of information exchange and opinion generation on youth, for youth and by youth.'  BOSCOM-India committed itself to promoting BIS throughout the provinces 'to give the young a voice and to generate opinion on issues concerning life, society and church.'