PIERCING THE RELIGIOUS VEIL: HUMAN RIGHTS OF DEVADASIS IN INDIA
PIERCING THE RELIGIOUS VEIL: HUMAN RIGHTS OF DEVADASIS IN INDIA

Summary/Abstract: It is often perceived in Hindu mainstream thought that religion and sexual activities, especially those of an unmarried woman, do not go hand in hand. However, in-depth exploration of the Hindu religion reveals that even religions can promote sexuality; in the form of prostitution to be precise. The Devadasi is a compound word, made up of Devi, a goddess, and Dasi meaning a female servant or slave. Devadasis is a group in Indian society who, at a very young age, were dedicated and “married off” to a deity, goddess Yelamma, and thus Yelamma becomes their husband. Their virginity is then auctioned to the highest bidder. Once dedicated, they are unable to marry, forced to become prostitutes for upper-caste community members, and eventually auctioned into an urban brothel. The ritual of dedication which, before being declared illegal in 1947 by the Madras Devadasi (Prevention of Devadasi) Act, promoted revered classical art forms such as Bharatnatyam, has today turned into a social evil that even the law cannot get rid of. The practice is prevalent mostly in the South India, where the Devadasis are now nothing more than prostitutes living in inhuman conditions in shanties, suffering from a number of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), living on the money they may make from men paying them for sex. This paper aims to shed light on the plight of Davadasis women’s plight and also tries to determine the causes of the failure of the laws to abolish this practice completely.

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