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The devadasi ( deva, meaning god and dasi, meaning slave)
system is an ancient Hindu system that was widely practiced centuries ago. The
devadasis in that bygone era were well versed in performing arts consisting of
classical dance and music. Those yesteryear devadasis were the kings’
concubines.
Fast forward to 2013, this practice still exists in southern
India with a morbid and sordid twist, concentrated in the state of Karnataka,
southern India.
In the Hindu social structure, better known as the caste system,
the Dalits also popularly known as untouchables, belong to the lowest caste and
they are denied basic human rights, making them stuck in a rut and regress as
India progresses ironically. They are viewed with utter repugnance and are said
to be polluted, hence, untouchable.
Now, the Dalits are practising this devadasi system although
the Indian government banned it in 1988 out of sheer desperation and abject
poverty.
Young Dalit girls, as young as 4 years old who hail from
poor families are dedicated to the goddess Yellama, the Hindu goddess of
fertility. No longer allowed to marry a mortal, they are expected to bestow
their entire life to the service of the goddess.
Once an initiated girl hits puberty, her virginity would be
auctioned off by her family to the highest bidder and he would ‘deflower’ her, she, being only a
child.
Those who are the customers of the devadasis are wealthy,
upper caste men and since paradoxically most devadasi belong to the untouchable
caste, the upper caste men who use the devadasi service say that they are
untouchable by day but touchable by night.
16 year old Roopa was dedicated to the goddess when she was
10 and she remembers how it was the first time:
“The first time was very hard. It was painful and since my vagina
opening was too small to commence intercourse, the man who was supposed to
sleep with me for the first time, slashed my vagina with a razor blade.”
Eyes, downcast, Roopa recalled that she bled profusely and
couldn’t sit for days out of excruciating pain.
Ever since her virginity was auctioned, Roopa has been
financially supporting her family by working as a sex worker out of her home in
a village close to Saundatti.
Parvattamma, another devadasi recounted that when she had a
daughter at 14, she was sent to work in the red light district in Mumbai.
Parwattama religiously sent the money she earned by selling
her body until she was tested HIV positive. She seethed, “We are a cursed
community. Men use us and then throw us away.”
She has, since returned home in Mudhol, south India weakened
by AIDS and unable to work.
Parvattama, now 26 plans to dedicate her own daughter to
Yellama simply because there is no any other option or hope for her daughter.
“I will die soon because of this disease. After my death,
who is going to look after my daughter? You tell me,” Parvattama asked.
Kariamma, a devadasi herself has 5 children and she has no
idea who are their fathers.
India’s women’s rights activists say that it is a vicious
cycle. Families sell off their daughters into prostitution, veneered by god and
religion norms. Then, the women who work as devadasi bear daughters and then
the inability to give a new lease of life to their daughters, drive the mothers
to dedicate their daughters to Yellama as seen in Parvattama’s case.This
phenomenon severs the prospect of acquiring an education for the girls and in
turn brake this socially noxious devadasi system.
Education for women is the only tool to do away the devadasi
custom and the ticket out of poverty.
An organisation working towards the eradication of the devadasi
system, says that although the dedication ceremonies are banned, the practice
is still prevalent, as families and priests conduct them in secretly.
Once a devadasi reaches her 40s, she would
be considered no longer attractive and they would be spurned by their very own
family who lived off her earnings and eschewed by the community.
Defeated and with no education and any
working skills, aged devadasis are rudely pushed into a life of begging just to survive while some
would become jogathis.
All this cruelty and injustice can be
curbed by education and awareness. But India, being a land full of extremes,
entrenched sexist and castist mindsets and poverty the battle is an uphill one.
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