Temples are seeking professionalism. Nope, they are not asking for prayers to be professional, but as sacred as ever. In fact, they are willing to provide certain standardized, transparent and devoted services to the people in the name of the God.
Three well-known Temples from Chennai- Parthasarthy temple in Triplicane, Dhandayudhapani temple in Vadapalani and Kapaleeswarar temple in Mylapore- have applied for ISO 9000:2008 certification on account of being well-maintained temples from the city. The three temples have included their fixed assets, accounts and strict adherence to rituals for scrutiny for ISO.
The cleaning and mopping of Kapaleesswarar and Parthasarathy temples have been outsourced to a private firm. A popular hotel chain ‘Saravana Bhavan’, maintains the Vadapalani temple free of cost.
ISO 9001:2008 is a document of standards for quality management systems maintained by the International Organization for Standardization and is administered by accreditation and certification bodies. Some of the requirements in ISO 9001:2008 include:
- A set of procedures that cover all key processes in the business;
- Monitoring processes to ensure they are effective;
- Keeping adequate records;
- Checking output for defects
- Regularly reviewing individual processes
- Facilitating continual improvement
Even before these three famous Chennai temples applying for ISO certification, the temples to have already joined the band wagon for this professional certification are Lord Ganesha’s Siddhi Vinayaka Temple in Coimbatore which is, surprisingly, just a 16×16 square foot temple.
A 180-years-old temple of Shri Ram Mandir in Madhya Pradesh boasts of ISO 9001-2008 certification for its exquisite idols and wonderful ambience for the devotees for offering prayers. The Golden Temple in Vellore is also ISO certified temple.
Do you feel that such certification programs can bring professionalism in the operations and management of the well-known temples of the country? Can these temples provide better infrastructural facilities to the devotees in the search of their God?