BENGALURU: Devadasis, or the maidens of God, almost never enter this way of life out of conviction. They are pledged to a temple by their families, by tying a delicate red-and-white beaded necklace, like it happened with Yallavva in Bagalkot.
She had just finished her pre-university college and started work in a shop to help her family of seven. “I gave up my dreams of higher studies,” she says.
One day, her parents took her to a Yallamma temple, where a senior Devadasi performed a ceremony and tied the god’s necklace around her frail neck.
“I was a Devadasi for a couple of years and then was sold into flesh trade,” she says. But, her fortunes changed when she fell in love with a boy and left to start her own family.
Yallavva joined an organisation to educate girls and women, and rescue them from this ancient, exploitative tradition. She ran from pillar-to-post to start a co-operative society and borrowed loans for it in 2015. Today, Yallavva’s society has recorded a turnover of `12 lakhs and earned a profit of `85,000. She has loaned funds to 30 Devadasis so far, in Kaladi, Ankali, Kudoni, Tulsigere, Murnal and Veerapura, and helped others avail benefits of government programmes.
Monetary support crucial
Yallavva knows better than anyone else how financial support can help women who are trying to escape the gods. She and the women who work with her say that the government needs to have more exclusive financial and educational programmes for Devadasis, since many are children themselves, and their children.
“We are happy with the government’s `1,500 monthly pension for Devadasis, distribution of free food grains and other welfare schemes like that for housing. But, the government must do more to physically rescue women from this system,” she says.
She wishes the parties had listed in their manifestos special programmes for this group of women. “If I can reform and achieve so much in eight years, other Devadasis can do too, but the government must show political will for this,” she says.
Mahadevi Ramappa Madar escaped the temple tradition to give her children education. She works as cook, preparing mid-day meals near Bagalkot, and has educated her four children.
Devadasis want the government to ensure their children a place in private schools in cities and towns. They ask for places reserved in hostels and training centres for vocational training.
“I am happy that my son Surappa (name changed) is serving in the Military. I am respected more for it,” says Mahadevi. There are other women who have managed to enroll their children into nursing or tailoring classes. These children live away from their mothers to avoid the social stigma.
Shivalingavva, a Devadasi from Biligi taluk, says that the government should run special recruitment drives for their children. Others ask for interest-free loans for their children, for self-employment.
Mahadevi Hullur, a former Devadasi now heading Jagruthi Mahila Sangha in Bijapur, says that government should sanction loans for Devadasis without asking for any security. She says that a small fraction of the 3,600 who had applied were given loans. “How can sanctioning a loan of `50,000 to 12 applicants, under Chaitanya Scheme, uproot this system,” she asks.
Shivalingavva has managed to put her two sons through higher education, one is pursuing a college degree, while the other is in his second-year of ITI. She managed all of this with her income from two mulching cows and the monthly pension of `1,500 given to Devadasis.
Mahadevi says that the pension, of `1,500, is meagre and wants it raised to `4,000. “How will the HIV infected Devadasis or sex workers survive on anything less,” she asks.
Mahadevi, the founder of the Renuka Yalamma Co-operative Bank, says that the authorities need to form a Legislative Committee to understand, in depth, the problems faced by sex workers. This, she believes, will make rehabilitation more effective.