http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6729927.stm
Friday, 8 June 2007, 15:28 GMT 16:28 UK
Slaves to the goddess of fertility
By Damian Grammaticas
BBC News, Bagalkot, southern India
In a village in southern India a child has just been born. A group of
women gather round the cradle, wishing the baby a life full of riches,
rubies and pearls.
"You're lucky the child is a boy," the women tell the mother. In this
society girls are valued far less.
The women are all devadasis, literally slaves of the goddess.
As children their parents gave them to serve Yellama - the goddess of
fertility. Her cult is thousands of years old, her followers spread
across southern India.
At the temple to Yellama in Saundatti women dance and praise the
goddess.
The practice of dedicating young girls as devadasis has been outlawed
for over 50 years, but still it happens.
Anti-slavery campaigners estimate that there are at least 25,000
devadasis in the state of Karnataka alone.
Sexual slavery
"Being devadasis means we are slaves of the goddess. We have to visit
this temple. We wear necklaces of pearls to show we are bound to
Yellama. We give blessings and perform her rituals," says Imla, a
devadasi in her 40s who is swathed in a pink and yellow sari.
When girls dedicated to Yellama reach puberty they are forced to
sacrifice their virginity to an older man. What follows is a life of
sexual slavery, they become sanctified prostitutes.
The money devadasis earn goes straight to their parents who often act as
pimps for their daughters.
"My parents didn't have any sons, so there was nobody to earn the family
a living," says Imla.
"Instead they turned me into a *****. I don't even remember when I
started because I was so young. My parents thought at least they'd get
some money from me."
Once girls are dedicated the course of their lives is decided. They can
never marry, never have a family life.
In a town nearby we found Shoba who is just 20 and has been a devadasi
prostitute for seven years.
Shoba showed me her brothel, a single room she shares with her parents.
She comes from a long line of devadasis. Her grandmother was one, her
sister is too.
Shoba remembers how, when she was 13 her parents dressed her as if for
marriage. They auctioned her virginity to the highest bidder.
Tough life
"When the first man arrived I thought he was going to marry me," Shoba
recalls, "but he slept with me and then never came back. I realised this
was now my trade. Every night I was sold to whoever paid the most."
Life here on the dry, harsh Deccan plateau has always been tough,
especially for girls, who are often seen as a burden for poor families,
expensive to marry off.
Recent years have been marked by droughts and crop failures.
The goddess of fertility is seen as a powerful force. Many believe that
giving girls to Yellama will bring good fortune on a family.
It also means they don't have to save for a dowry, and the daughter
becomes a bread-winner.
We found Shoba's mother Satyavati tending to her field of sunflowers.
Sacrificing their daughter's life has enriched Shoba's parents.
"Someone had to continue the tradition. It had to be my daughters," she
shrugs.
"Because Shoba earns so much money she has been able to build us a
house, and she bought these fields. So what's the big deal?"
Secret ceremonies
Despite campaigns by India's national and state governments, the system
of devadasis endures.
The number of young girls being dedicated is declining. But now the
ceremonies happen in secret, so it is impossible to know exact numbers.
I asked Shoba why she doesn't just give up being a devadasi, and leave
it behind?
"I can't get out of the system, even if I say I'm not a devadasi any
more nobody will come forward to marry me," she says.
"I keep telling other people not to make their daughters devadasis, you
are abused, it's a horrible life."
So it's a life that Shoba will never escape from. Women already
dedicated cannot be freed.
The power of belief is still so strong here that she will always be a
devadasi, enslaved.