Devadasi ... I don't need this goddess any more, simply let me die" told a helpless 12 yrs young lady ...

"My mom, a devadasi herself, committed me to Yellamma and left me in the city to be kicked, beaten and sexually assaulted. I don't need this goddess any more, simply let me die" told a helpless 12 yrs young lady ... 

Devadasi system is a religious practice in south India which continues to flourish in rural areas of Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh even today. According to a report submitted by one-man commission recently, states that about 80,000 women still follow the system.The girls are forced to perform dances and are subjected to cruel beating & sexual assault. This system is known by different names in different areas,Religious beliefs, caste. This ‘belief’ is heavily based on male domination specially of the higher caste, over Girls from poor families of the "untouchable", or the lower caste.

Devadasis are also referred to also as Jogini. Jogini means a type of prostitute who is the servant of god. Jogini is married to god and is called the wife of god and she should sleep with higher caste men of that village or town. The `marriage' mostly occurs even before the girl has attained puberty stage. She is eventually forced to become a sex worker.Girls from poor families of the "untouchable", or lower, caste are "married" to Yellamma as young as four. No longer allowed to marry a mortal, they are expected to bestow their entire lives to the service of the god.

In the local language, they have a saying about devadasis: “Servant of god, but wife of the whole town.” In reality, they are sexual slaves, and devadasi girls are forbidden from marrying. And they have to earn their own income by begging in the streets.

The devadasi system has been part of southern Indian life for many centuries. A veneer of religion covers the supply of concubines to wealthy men. Trained in classical music and dance, the devadasis lived in comfortable houses provided by a patron, usually a prominent man in the village. Their situation changed as the tradition was made illegal across India in 1988, and the temple itself has publicly distanced itself from their plight.

"For certain SC communities [Scheduled Caste – a government classification of lower castes] this has become a way of life, sanctioned by tradition," The priests conduct the ceremonies in their own houses because "it is profitable for them”.

Each January, nearly half a million people visit the small town of Saundatti for a jatre or festival, to be blessed by Yellamma, the Hindu goddess of fertility. The streets leading to the temple are lined with shops selling sacred paraphernalia – glass bangles, garlands, coconuts and heaped red and yellow kunkuma (a dye that devotees smear on their foreheads). The older women are called jogathis and are said to be intermediaries between the goddess and the people. They all start their working lives as devadasis and most of them have been initiated at this temple.

Patil started Vimochana partly to stop the children of devadasis becoming devadasis themselves. He set up a residential school for devadasi children in his own home 21 years ago, in order to train them to become teachers or nurses. Enduring protests from neighbours who did not want to live near the untouchable children of prostitutes, the school has gone on to educate more than 700 children, and is today housed in several buildings. "More than 300 of these children are married and have become part of society," he says.

~ Rani

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