40 years after ban, Devadasis still shackled to system

Hosapete: Four decades after the Devadasi system was banned in Karnataka, young girls and women are still ‘dedicated to god’ in Vijayanagara district, which has the highest number of survivors of this regressive system as per government data.

An ongoing survey by Mission Vijaya Vanite, a help desk set up by the Vijayanagara district administration for the Devadasis, has listed 71 Devadasi women in the age group of 18 to 36. Most of them belong to the Scheduled Caste, mainly Madiga community.

“Many hesitate to come out as Devadasis fearing punitive action despite their deplorable condition,” says Manjula Malgi, district coordinator, Mission Vijaya Vanite.

Take the case of Saritha*. The 21-year-old came to know that she will be dedicated as a Devadasi just a day before the ritual was organised in 2022. Now, she is four months pregnant. She finds it hard to work in the fields as a farm labourer but has no other means of survival. To add to her distress, she is unsure if she will be covered under the schemes for pregnant women, as she cannot mention the name of the father of the child. It took several sleepless nights and a lot of courage for her to fill the form. She hopes this will help her get food at the local anganwadi.

Saritha belongs to a scheduled caste community and is one of the recent survivors of the exploitative Devadasi system banned in the state in 1984. 

“I did not come out as a Devadasi until I conceived. It might cause problems for us as it is against the law,” she says. “The person who was in a relationship with me stopped coming to the house and answering my calls after I informed him about the pregnancy. After all, he is someone else’s husband and has a family to look after. I have struck off the field where I had to fill in my husband’s name and added my father’s name instead,” she says. 

She was told that her parents had decided to dedicate her when she was young, but she knows this was an arrangement to look after her ailing father. “I am the youngest and all my elder sisters are married,” she says. 

After Saritha, her 19-year-old cousin was dedicated around months ago. The sentiment of doing something for “the well-being of family and society” is still being used to push women into a lifetime of sexual slavery in this district. Curing physical or mental disabilities or preventing misfortune are other reasons cited by the perpetrators to push girls into the Devadasi system. 

“There might be many more. The latest pattern is that women gain the strength to come out years after their dedication, generally during their pregnancy,” says Usha, a taluk coordinator of Mission Vijaya Vanite. She is the daughter of a Devadasi woman. 

She and her colleagues have recorded the extremely vulnerable situation of young girls from Devadasi families as men from the community or the village prey on them.

Manjula explains how and why the regressive system persists despite governmental and social initiatives. “It requires generational support for Devadasi families to come out of the practice. This is lacking in our programmes now. While the government has come up with rehabilitation programmes, the lack of awareness on both sides (the government and community) and problems in implementation have resulted in these schemes falling short,” she says. 

The last survey of Devadasis was done in the state in 2008 and the list has not been updated since. Those who are left out or came out as Devadasis after that are not included in the list. Some of the families who are included in the list are not getting due benefits. “We need support to pursue education which is the only way we can stand on our own and come out of this. I was one of the very few fortunate people,” says Manjula, a postgraduate. Her mother is a seventh-generation Devadasi. 

“In 2019, we sent a list of Devadasis who are left out and a decision is yet to be made,”  says Sudha M Chidri, project officer, Devadasi Rehabilitation Project, undivided Ballari district. 

Perpetrators of the crime have also devised unscrupulous ways even as the administration keeps a strict vigil on places historically known to host the Devadasi initiation ritual. Take Shwetha’s case, for instance. Her family took her to a temple late in the night where someone officiated the ceremony. Once they were back, she was made to remove the ‘muttu’, the symbol of the Devadasis. 

In another case, Ganga* is not able to get a Bhagyalakshmi bond for her child as she cannot mention her partner’s name. At the same time, her name has not been included in the government’s Devadasi registry as she was initiated into the practice after the previous survey. 

Vijayanagara Deputy Commissioner M S Divakara says that they have taken all measures to prevent the Devadasi practice in the district. “We have a strong network of informants and officials to prevent any such incident. No incident has been reported of late. Also, we have awareness, counselling and vocational training programmes to help Devadasis and their families to build a safe life,” he says. He added that those who are left out of the Devadasi rehabilitation programme will be provided with benefits under other schemes. “Still, it is very difficult to expose such incidents. If we get a lead, the administration will take every measure to rehabilitate the girl,” he says.     

Shweta Sanjeevkumar, deputy director, Women and Child Development Department, Hosapete, says that the process is on to include single mothers in the list for the Bhagyalakshmi and other schemes. 

(*Name changed to protect identity)