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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | God of awful things by Deebashree Mohanty

God of awful things by Deebashree Mohanty

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published Published on Aug 28, 2011   modified Modified on Aug 28, 2011

In the name of God, hapless girls are still being made to become devadasis which in stark terms means being raped by the priests, secretly auctioned to brothels and finally dying of AIDS. Deebashree Mohanty speaks to a few of these unfortunate women who died everyday of their life for a farce called service of the God

I was nine when I got married to my village deity Yellamma. The mahajan, after presenting me with the mangalsutra, tied me to a pole near the temple where worshippers could come and pay obeisance. At night, I was taken to the big kothis where the men of the house would take turns in raping me. At first it used to hurt and I would bleed profusely. But after a few nights, I became used to the pain. When I was 19, I was taken to a city and handed over to a madam who runs a brothel. Since then, my life has only revolved around customers and the money I made. I have two children. I have told them that they are children of God,” Lakhmiamma, who is now in her 50s, recalls how she was forced to become a jogini by her parents.

Like Amma, many lower caste girls in the country are forced to go through the horrific fate. “Often upper caste families influence the farmers (from lower castes) to dedicate their daughters to them in the name of God. The landlord suggests that the girl can continue serving his family and the local goddess throughout her life and offers `2,000 to `3,000 to the father for this arrangement. Some poor families force their physically challenged girls to become joginis. Some offer their eldest daughter. When a girl has copper-coloured hair, which is due to malnutrition, the villagers believe that she is born to be a jogini. In many areas, a sick baby girl is abandoned outside a temple in the night. If she is still alive in the morning, the family believes she is born for the goddess,” Grace Nirmala tells you, adding that according to an estimate by Aashray, her home for such distraught women, there are about 27,000 joginis in Andhra Pradesh today.

“What is more painful is the self-perception of these girls. They believe they are tender buds meant for God. It is the ultimate offering in worship. And when they grow up, they rarely mingle with outsiders, so the joginis do not perceive sex work as prostitution but as service to society,” says Grace.

In Andhra Pradesh alone, 95 per cent of the joginis belong to the Scheduled Castes (Mala and Madiga) and Scheduled Tribes and a small percentage to the Backward Castes like Telaga and Chakali. The joginis are concentrated in the districts of Chittoor, Anantapur, Nellore, Prakasham, Warangal, Mahboobnagar and Nizamabad.

“It is bascially fear of diseases, curses and superstition that force parents to dedicate their daughters to the goddess. A Devadasi is not allowed to marry, but is expected to satisfy the lust of any man, for, that is her religious duty. Hundreds of young women have been devastated by a system that forces them into prostitution. The children of devadasies have no one they can call father,” Asha Triplani Patnaik, another activist who has started a home for the children of these women in Odisha, tells you. At present, there are over 50 children and 35 women who have taken shelter at Jai Kalia, Patnaik’s initiative in Puri.

Fiftyseven-year-old Purivamma from Nellore, got a second lease of life when she was bought to Ashray earlier this year. “I had a very lavish marriage ceremony and it was the happiest day for my family. I was getting married to goddess Yellamma and that was supposed to be the most auspicious wedding. There was food for everyone. When the senior jogini tied that mangalsutra around my neck I was scared. In a few weeks time I was asked to go to the home of the head priest to perform some ritual to appease the gods. Villagers believed that my communion with the priest would ward off a deadly disease which had struck my village. Mahajana raped me that night and for the rest of the week. But when this did not have any impact and the disease started spreading like wild fire, I was beaten up by priests in the temple premises. They thought I had angered the Lord. When I fainted, they left me alone. The next day I woke up at this ashram in the city,” Purviamma, a jogini at 12, tells you her story amid hysteria.

Purviamma has a daughter whom she wants to dedicate to the service of the local deity. “We are born to be dasis. We are anyways not treated any better. At least as a dasi my daughter will get some respect from villagers,” Purviamma says.

While the Government has a 1988 Jogini Abolition Act in place, activists rubbish it as toothless. “The Act is there, but it is not a very stringent one. According to this Act, those found encouraging the practice will be punished. But how can you punish the entire community, including political heads of the village and the parents of the girl? Villagers regard this as a ritual that must be carried out to appease the Gods. And the parents of the girl comply willingly, as a result of which these cases don’t even get registered. We are demanding multiple developments. The Government has to see everything, their income etc. If we implement the schemes, the girls will come out of the vicious system. The village administration, political parties and the sarpanch should bear the responsibilities of doing away with this heinous ritual,” Grace tells you.

For other activists, it is the law maker who abuses the system. “The law works to the disadvantage of women because it criminalises their actions and not the actions of their patrons. The police sometimes goes as far as to demand sex as bribe. They will threaten to file charges under the act if the woman rebuffs them. Their perceived status in society, as women who are supposed to serve men sexually, also makes it more difficult for the devadasis to approach the police for help. When a devadasi is raped, it is not considered rape. She can be had by any man, any time,” Aparna Singhdeo, co-founder for Jai Kalia, says.

The devadasi practice is rampant in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka as also in some temples in Maharashtra and Orissa. Once dedicated, the girl can’t get married, is forced to become a prostitute to serve the upper castes and eventually auctioned to an urban brothel.

The age-old practice continues to legitimise sexual violence and discrimination that have come to signify the intersection between caste and gender.

“The patrons of the devadasis are generally from higher castes because those from the devadasis’ own castes cannot afford the rituals. In earlier days, the patron kept these devadasis at home and the number of girls used to be a yardstick of the status of that man. This system of patronage has given way to commercial prostitution in cities,” Patnaik explains

“When I was pregnant with Raju’s child, he refused to marry me. Instead, he offered me a solution — he wanted me to abort the child and dedicate my life to the deity at a local temple. He promised to continue his relationship with me if I became a devadasi. The next day I hung a mangalsutra around my neck and declared to the villagers that I was married to God. I was expecting Raju to fulfill his promise and spend the rest of his life with me. Instead, he introduced me to many landlords in our village and the nearby ones. In the name of service to God, I was made to satisfy their sexual desires. I had spent 12 years of my life with other men, serving as their object of pleasure. I have had to undergo seven abortions,” recalls Meera of Pathanipata village near Jajpur district in Orissa.

Meera is 44-years-old now and childless. She was rescued from her village earlier this year and still has hope that Raju will be back. “Meera’s condition was unstable when we found her. She had not been fed properly. She was paid a pittance as compensation, but her parents feel proud that she has served the Gods. They have been blessed with better farm produce and they are leading a better life,” Patnaik tells you with a hint of sarcasm.

In 1992, the Karnataka Government passed the Karnataka Devadasi (Prohibition of Dedication) Act which called for their rehabilitation. Like many laws aimed at protecting women and lower castes, the Act suffered from lack of enforcement. Moreover, as local activists ask, when the cops themselves are known to use devadasis for their sexual fantasies, how will the Act be implemented?

In September 2010, Radhamayee was rescued from the Khandoba temples premises in North Karnataka. “I will never let my children go through what I did. I was forced to marry the deity because my parents wanted a son to take their legacy forward. My mother thought, by sacrificing me to the service of God, she will be blessed with a son. I had been a jogini for 20 years and every day was killing. Now, I don’t remember anything that I went through. I can barely recognise my son. He is taken care of by the NGO members,” she tells you. Radhamayee was brought to Pannah a rehabilitative NGO that works for the betterment of joginis in Mangalore.

Activists involved in the Dalit women’s emancipation movements explain that the nexus between caste and forced prostitution is strong and that the devadasi system is no exception. Most Indian girls and women in India’s urban brothels come from lower-caste, tribal, or minority communities. Like other forms of violence against women, ritualised prostitution, activists believe, is a system “designed to kill whatever vestige of self-respect the lower castes have in order to subjugate them and keep them underprivileged.”

According to Ram Dayal, member of the Centre for Justice and Peace: “Thousands of untouchable girls (between 6 and 8 years) are forced to become maidens of God. They are taken from their families, never to see them again. They are later raped by the priest and auctioned secretly into prostitution and ultimately die from AIDS. According to current statistics, 5,000 to 15,000 girls are auctioned secretly every year.”

And, we are in the 21st century with ambitions to become superpower!

The bad & worse of system


    * The eldest woman of the devadasi community ties the mangalsutra. In some ceremonies, the girl is made to march to the temple. The audience welcomes her with garlands and sweets. The mahajana then performs a havan. Vows are recited and the girl is declared wedded to the Lord.

    * Every Tuesday and Friday, joginis are required to go around the village, carrying a slate in their hands which says that they are slaves of the Lord and beg for food. During weddings, death ceremonies and religious fairs, joginis are invited to bless the event. They are made to keep a fast when there is a death in a particular family. During a wedding, they walk along with the groom and bride around the pandal.

    * Polepally jatara (fair): A jogini is made to sit in a cradle hung to a hydraulic crane. As the cradle rotates, she throws flowers and turmeric powder over the crowd below. The cradle rotates so fast that the women very often land up with fractured ribs and many have not survived the ordeal.

    * Once the girls attain puberty, they are trained to become courtesans, catering to the villagers. The girls undergo an elaborate ceremony at which liquor flows freely and some influential villagers initiate them into the profession.

The Pioneer, 28 August, 2011, http://www.dailypioneer.com/363890/God-of-awful-things.html


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