Why India's 'devadasi' girls face a wretched life in the name of religion

[Prometheus Bound]

Why India's 'devadasi' girls face a wretched life in the name of religion

It was once considered a holy calling but a BBC film shows that becoming a devadasi is a direct path into sexual exploitation
* Tracy McVeigh
* guardian.co.uk, Saturday 22 January 2011 17.41 GMT

When she was a three, the red and white beads tied around her neck by the adults in her southern Indian village were a plaything for Hanamavva. But they marked out her future; never allowed to be married, she was now ostensibly a "servant of God", a devadasi. Hanamavva had been dedicated to the Hindu goddess Vellamma, an ancient practice which once might have won her a future of comfort and respect, but now doomed her to a squalid life as a prostitute from the age of 13.

"I just wanted to kill myself – I planned to climb to the roof of the brothel and throw myself off but the thought of leaving my family destitute prevented me," she said. It was five years before she could escape, with her two young sons, and try to make a new life for herself. But even then she still had to fend off the constant –sometimes violent – sexual harrassment by men in her village.

.................

It is an uphill battle in some wretchedly poor provinces where selling a daughter under a divine mandate – often encouraged by the local priest or a powerful villager with an eye on the girl for himself – might be the only way to feed the rest of a family.

Shobha was the youngest of seven children and was dedicated aged eight. At 12, she was taken out of school and her first paying "partner" was her 35-year-old brother-in-law. "No one asked my consent, money talks. Girls like me grow up in living fear of reaching puberty." She was determined that her own daughter would escape the same fate. "The devadasi system isn't about religion. Its about economics. We're just traded like a commodity. I know the pains as a serving devadasi, how exploitative this practice is. We are the victims. What happened to me houldn't happen in another's life. I want to stop this and I decided to fight."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/22/india-sex-exploitation-girls-devadasi

[littlewolf]

1. why isnt this being addressed either thru the UN or thru the embassy

India is a major trading partner ... pressure can be used to change this .....

[Hannah Bell]

3. us only puts that kind of pressure on countries who refuse to be "trading partners"

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. It is illegal in India; but, like many countries, they don't enforce their law that well

So 'pressure' may not mean much. You don't normally say "we'll use trade pressure on this country because its crime rate is too high".

[kywildcat]

8. Because we have exported

so many jobs there. Seriously. The maimed child beggars being manipulated by the beggar mafia, girls and women sold into slavery. This has been happening for centuries in India and the rest of the world knew full well when they began exploiting India for profits. The one thing the US didn't count on was that India-in it's infinite corruption knew how to play the game much better than us. The game being-corporate prostitution of their educated population, and when the US decimates their own talent base to exploit India and get rich quick-WHAM-starting denying visa's and permissions for US personnel to work there-because the few thousand americans we would send to work there would provide way to much competition to their billions of exploited and poor people.

The whole India thing just sends me over the top. Sorry. I think it to be the most corrupt culture in history. The corruption is entrenched and with each job we send over there, we further support and entrench that corruption.

[aquart]

2. Temple prostitutes. I had no idea they still existed.

Patriarchal religions are just nasty.

[Hannah Bell]

4. it's not about religion, as the woman said; it's about money. do you find other forms of prosti-

tution more acceptable because the women (or men) supposedly "choose" them as a "job"?

[aquart]

5. Oh, let me gather my notes. I know I've had this conversation before.

"Choice" God, what luxury we live in that we talk about choice.

"Acceptable" TO WHOM? Prostitution is a fact. It will never ever under any circumstances be eradicated. I would never consider the word "acceptable" in that context. My sole concern is the health and survival of the people in the trade for whatever sucky reason.

And, as the economy worsens worldwide with the increasing climate/political instability, expect to see more and more of it. As people find themselves with nothing else to sell.

I have absolutely no use for righteous indignation. "Acceptable"? It IS.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. legal and regulated would be the sane approach.

But when it comes to penises and vaginas, sanity gets all fucked up.

What should apply here are child labor laws and slavery laws.

[Hannah Bell]

9. so temple prostitution "is", yet you had indignant words. as for

prostitution "is" -- in my little town of 30K there were open brothels before ww2, where women would yell out the windows to customers.

they disappeared during the war, not because of any crackdown, but because jobs "appeared" & women had other ways of earning a living.

[ljm2002]

11. "Patriarchal religions are just nasty" ... +1000000 n/t

[hedgehog]

10. In this country, we allow girls and boys to self select to be child prostitutes

by turning a blind eye to runaways and throw-aways.