National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the chief secretaries and the director general of police in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh seeking reports
Bizarre religious rituals involving young girls in temples in two different parts of Tamil Nadu has raised serious questions of human rights violation with activists who are now seeking a ban on such customs.
In the name of tradition, young girls, who have not attained puberty, were forced to live bare-chested at a temple in Madurai in Southern Tamil Nadu for 15 days, while in Tiruvallur district, adjoining Chennai city, girl children who are 'offered' to Goddess Mathamma are forbidden to marry, akin to the banned Devadasi system.
Seven girls adorned with jewels like goddesses with no upper garments were made to spend 15 days at Yezhaikaatha Amman Temple at Vellalur in Madurai under the care of male priest to bring progeny and prosperity to their villages. The ritual, supposedly centuries old, is being followed by people belonging to Ambalakarar community in Vellalur Nadu comprising of 62 villages.
Only the girls who have not reached their puberty are sent to the temple. The girls will be worshipped as Goddess for the fortnight.
Madurai Collector K Veera Raghava Rao directed his officials to ensure that the girls taking part in the rituals are properly clothed to ensure they are not abused or harassed. He said that parents send their girls voluntarily to take part in the custom.
Despite the Collector's direction, the 15-day festival ended on Tuesday with the girls carrying pots of milk to the goddess without wearing any upper garments, said an activist based in Madurai.
In the villages bordering Andhra Pradesh in Tiruvallur and Vellore districts of Tamil Nadu, Arunthathiyar, a Dalit community, practices a custom of offering girls to Goddess Mathamma, which is another form of Devadasi system - dedicates girls to a life of sex work in the name of religion. Taking cognizance of a complaint in this regard, National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the chief secretaries and the director general of police in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh seeking reports within four weeks.
As part of the ritual, the girls are dressed as a bride and once the ceremony is over, their dresses are removed, virtually leaving them naked, the commission said. "They are denied to live with their families and have an education. They are forced to live in Mathamma temple deemed to be like a public property and face sexual exploitation," it said. The girl dedicated to the Goddess is called as Mathamma.
Fatima Burnard, founder of Society for Rural Education and Development who had worked with Mathamma for over two decades said that it is a form of caste discrimination by the higher castes – Telugu speaking Naidus. "Naidus and other higher castes are the ones who conduct the festival every year and dedicate the girl to Goddess Mathamma for cheap and free sex. These women are not married but they are treated as public property. These are religious sanctioned prostitution," she told DNA. As per the custom, the Mathammas are expected to live with the meagre offerings from the male patrons who pin money on their blouse when they dance for them. However, they work as agricultural labourers or domestic servants to the landlord, mostly Naidus.
Fatima who also helped the Mathammas form an association to assert their rights attributed the continuance of the inhuman practice to the economic factor that is the dependence of the landless Arunthathiyar on their landlord Naidu for their livelihood. "As long as the land relationship was not changed, it is very difficult to break that practice," she said.
NHRC NOTICE
- National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the chief secretaries and the director general of police in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh seeking reports
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