Adeline Rajkumar, an LWF Youth Coordinator for Asia, speaking at the Asia Church Leadership Conference in April 2025. Photo: LWF/Johanan Celine Valeriano
Adeline Rajkumar, an LWF Youth coordinator for Asia and delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women
(LWI) - Among the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) delegates attending the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York this month is 28-year-old Adeline Rajkumar from the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church in southern India. A clinical nutritionist by profession, she is passionate about intergenerational justice and women’s empowerment in a context where women and girls continue to face huge challenges, compounded by deep-rooted cultural and religious beliefs.
As a young girl, Rajkumar was influenced by visits she made with her family to remote, rural parts of the country where poverty and malnutrition were rampant. As a Christian, she was also inspired by the founder of her church, the pioneering 17th century German missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, who made vital contributions to the spread of education and literacy in India.
In this Voices from the Communion, Rajkumar, an Asia regional coordinator for LWF’s Youth network, reflects on the challenges she faces in her advocacy work and the opportunities that have opened up for her by being a part of the global communion of churches.
Tell us about your family and how you became interested in advocacy at an early age?
Yes, we are a family of four, me, my younger brother, my mother who is a teacher and my father who works for a Christian organization. He is really the inspiration for what I do today, but we have also done a lot of mission and ministry together as a family, travelling to different places, slums and also rural areas, to serve people in need.
Since my childhood, my father would take us along with him during community visits, so I saw a lot of poverty and malnutrition early on. That is one of the main reasons why I wanted to pursue my education in clinical nutrition. I have a master’s degree in clinical nutrition and also a post-graduate diploma in journalism.
You have been very involved in youth leadership in your church too, haven’t you?
Yes, my church in Chennai is part of the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church and I was a youth leader there. Currently we have a young pastor as youth leader and I’m very grateful to him and to our Bishop Christian Samraj who is very supportive of this youth work. Just last month, I was selected as one of the regional coordinators for Asia of the LWF Youth network, looking after the western and eastern parts of Asia.
I started my youth work because I was inspired by the famous missionary Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg who first printed the Tamil Bible and led a great revival movement. He was just a young man when he started his missionary work, spreading the gospel and eventually landing in Tranquebar where our church was founded. That is where my roots are and I am one of the fourth generation of Christians in the Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Where do you work now in Chennai?
I’m working in a women’s community group, based in Chennai, where we do a lot of workshops and holistic training for young girls. I try to use my health sector knowledge as well as my other skills for women’s empowerment. My main motivation is that I want to help eradicate the gender bias in my country. I know that it’s a complicated picture, but I want to do something to bring about change for women and girls.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for women in your country today?
To be honest, we have a lot of problems and women and girls do not feel safe to go out on their own. I don’t feel safe going out on my own at night, even though the government is supporting a lot of efforts to improve safety and rights for women. But there are also deep rooted cultural and religious factors, so women are expected to be submissive, to keep quiet, to listen and obey whatever their fathers, their husbands or their brothers say.
This is also part of the malnutrition problem in India because the majority of the food, or whatever families have cooked, is often given to the fathers and sons first. The women and girls only get to eat what is left over. In our region there is a high incidence of diseases like anemia connected to malnutrition and micro-nutritional deficiencies, as well as problems due to bad sanitation and lack of proper sewage treatment. For example, I visited a project where there was just one toilet for over a hundred people.
How do you hope to bring change in this context?
Education is one of the most important changes for women to understand their rights. Women get paid very little, often for working hard all day or sometimes every day of the year but they are paid less than the men. But I am thankful to LWF for giving me opportunities to learn more about this work for change, to grow and hear about perspectives and advocacy from other country contexts.
It is not easy being a Christian, or a member of other minorities, here in India as there is often a fear that you are trying to convert people to your religion. In the church too, there is sometimes resistance because of the intergenerational gap and people feel that youth should just listen and obey their elders. But we want to help bear the responsibilities for change and I want the next generation of girls in India, and everywhere, to be educated, to feel safe and loved.
When did you first become involved with LWF’s activities?
So, my journey started when I attended a Peace Messengers Training in Cambodia where I spoke about a Women’s Peace Day initiative I had been helping to organize. After that, I had the chance to attend a Women’s Human Rights Advocacy Training in Geneva and I started taking up the lessons I learned there back in my region. I hope to do more work in bringing the issues facing women in India to the global level, but it is not easy to do this without facing repercussions.
For the past two years, I’ve been coordinating with LWF Youth for the planning of the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, firstly with a social media campaign where we connected youth in different parts of the world to work for the elimination of violence against women and girls. It was a very good experience and we had a lot of positive feedback. Then last year, I helped to coordinate a 16-hour prayer vigil, starting in Asia and covering all regions of the world.
What does it mean for you to be a part of the LWF delegation at the United Nations in New York?
Being part of the LWF delegation is an incredible opportunity for me. I hope to gain deeper insights into how youth can meaningfully engage in advocacy, particularly in advancing women’s leadership, access to justice, and health equity.
I want to take back practical ideas and inspiration to empower communities in India, to share the lessons learned with other LWF youth, and to continue contributing to positive change with faith, hope, and collaboration at the center of our work.
