Prostitutes of god

[ensho]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/prostitutes-of-god-2082290.html


Devadasi are young girls who are dedicated to a Hindu deity at a young age and support their families as sex workers.


-snip-

The only thing that has changed since the Devadasi practise was made illegal in 1988 is that the ceremonies have been driven underground. It’s still very common in some parts of India. A Westerner wouldn’t know to look at the girls that they are Devadasi, but Indians know on sight who they are and what they do. Really it comes down to caste.

-snip-

The girls probably won’t have a real understanding of the sex work element until what they call their ‘first night’. This is when their virginity is sold to a local man, normally the highest bidder. He might be a local farmer, landowner or businessman. Some of them say, “I was dedicated to the goddess, but I didn’t know this was what was expected.”

-snip-

HIV is very prevalent in the community. Our translator, who works very closely with these communities, describes HIV as being like plucking a bunch of grapes. As soon as a woman is infected then her whole family becomes infected. Every man she sleeps with then becomes infected. Then the men pass it onto their wives. It’s very difficult to measure the disease’s prevalence because many don’t understand what that they’ve got.
-snip-
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a journalist has made a movie about this, information found in snips

come on India stop this. its 2010 this should not be happening to your girls

[Solly Mack]

1. k/r

[Brickbat]

2. It will be a good day when the caste system is brought down.

[COLGATE4]

4. It's been in place for thousands of years and any and all

attempts to legislate its end have merely driven it underground or made it the subject of polite, insincere denial. When I was in India there had to be four people to clean my hotel room, since caste dictated how far from (or near to) the floor they could work. The higher the caste, the farther from the floor. Therefore, one cleaned the floors, one dusted the funiture, one only would work on things at waist length or higher and one just ordered the others around. It's instilled from birth and most people have absolutely no experiential background to even assume that there's a different system.

[Brickbat]

5. I know. It's terrible.

Legislation is not what will tear it apart.

[Matariki]

3. A reality check for those who wax poetic over the idea of the "sacred prostitute"

[MattBaggins]

6. Never was any such thing

Romanticized nonsense.