International women’s day and plight of “Devdasis”
MARCH 8 is celebrated around the world as International Women’s Day, but in this context, human rights experts have reminded that for the past 74 years, Indian rulers have skilfully given the impression to the outside world that in this self-proclaimed largest democracy, all citizens have basics rights and the deprived sections of the society are treated equally at the governmental and state level.
Even if there are occasional incidents that negate this behaviour, it is done at the individual level and this practice does not have social and state patronage but a look at the ground realities reveals a different picture of Indian society.
For example, if only women’s rights are taken into account, it is clear that India is still home to the worst examples of ignorance after twenty years of the 21st century.
According to the Hindi newspaper “Nav Bharat Times”, thousands of Hindu girls are still kept in many temples in India as “Devadasis” and these unfortunate girls, after all, sorts of physical and mental abuse, are thrown into the basements of temples in worse condition than animals in middle age.
Where no one cares for them, no treatment is given to them and in these basements, these unfortunate women die miserably.
Only 5% of the total numbers of women who have undergone the special ritual of “Devadasi” survive after the age of 45.
Otherwise, they die of diseases like enema, TB, HIV and STD. In Hindu mythology especially “Sanatan Dharam”, Devadasi means “women dedicated to God”.
Throughout their life, these women are exploited in the name of Eshwar, Dharam and temples, and after suffering from a terrible disease, these Devadasis are forced to live a miserable life because, after middle age, they are not able to satisfy the sexual hunger of the “holy priests”.
The National Women’s Commission of India had submitted a regular report in this regard which highlighted many sad and even embarrassing facts.
According to the report, this inhumane practice is still spreading in some parts of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Although there are official laws in India against the practice of “Devadasi”, it is still common practice to make innocent girls “Devadasi” in the name of serving Hindu Dharam.
Sadly, 80% of these girls belong to lower caste Hindu families. In Andhra Pradesh, there are many forms of “Devadasi” ritual such as Vikotation, Jogini, Basuhi and Manthama.
In this province alone, 33,799 orphaned girls are forced to live in extreme poverty.
It is also noteworthy that at a very young age these girls are named after Bhagwan in the name of Dharam and after that, almost every individual uses their body and as a result of physical and mental abuse, 95% of these girls die between the ages of 40 and 45 because they often suffer from anemia.
It is noteworthy that the disease of these girls is often detected at an early stage, but instead of treating them, the priests of the temples focus all their attention on the new arrivals and ultimately, these innocent women fall prey to India’s “Great Democracy” and secularism.
According to the contents of the proposed report, the Devadasi girls between the ages of 10 and 25 are abused, but after the age of 25, they gradually fall into disrepute and reach their logical conclusion by the age of 45.
According to the majority of these devadasis, their parents dedicate them in the name of the Bhagwan due to poverty or being very ill in childhood and these girls are between the ages of 10 and 15 years.
They are initially kept with the so-called Bhagwan in the temple but later everyone is allowed to have physical contact with them.
Some of these unfortunate girls even gave birth to children whose parents they did not know about.
After the babies are born, they are forced to re-establish relationships and are left to die half-dead afterward.
Similarly, although in some Indian areas, including Karnataka and Maharashtra, the ritual is flourishing in one form or another.
Though in Orissa and Tamil Nadu, the practice is slowly coming to an end, but in other Indian states, thousands of girls are still being forced to live like animals through this heinous act.
Some NGOs are doing their best to curb this inhumane practice, but they are not getting much success due to extremist groups blindly following Hindu Dharam.
If the outside world and India’s conscientious objectors insist on considering India a democratic and secular country despite all this, then the sobs of these thousands of helpless women will sooner or later trigger the law of nature.
At present, the sighs of these helpless women are drowned out by the noise of so-called Indian secularism and democratic claims.
It remains to be seen how long the international conscience will remain silent on this human humiliation, because in a country where women of the same religion are treated inhumanely, what will happen to other minorities.
—The writer, a freelance columnist, was Research Fellow in Islamabad Policy Research Institute and Researcher in Centre for South Asian Studies, Punjab University Lahore.
