Woman alleges gender bias in Travancore Devaswom Board recruitment, approaches Kerala High Court

Thiruvananthapuram: A woman has alleged gender bias in denying her a job at the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB), likely due to the restriction on women between 10 and 50 years of age, who are not allowed to enter into Sabarimala Ayyappa temple.

Thiruvananthapuram native Nitha A B approached the Kerala High Court alleging that even as she secured first rank in the written examination to the post of TDP public relations officer (PRO), she was deliberately given low score in the interview by the Kerala Devaswom Recruitment Board.

While Devaswom minister V N Vasavan said on Wednesday that a decision would be taken on the matter after proper examination, the first rank holder Arun G S was swiftly issued an appointment order to report to work.

While Nitha topped the written test with 70 marks, she was given three marks for the interview, making her total score 73. Arun came second in the written exam with 67 marks. But topped the rank list by one mark after securing a score of seven in the interview.

Nitha alleged that she was deliberately awarded low marks in the interview to deny her the job. As the selection process was in the final stages, a TDB employee filed a petition against appointing a woman as PRO citing that the officer needs to be at Sabarimala Ayyappa shrine during the two-month long pilgrimage and other important occasions. But no such bar on women was mentioned in the notification for the PRO post issued by the Kerala Devaswom Recruitment Board, she pointed out.

Both the petitions, one filed by Nitha as well as the one against appointing women as TDB PRO, are now pending before the high court.