Whither women’s liberation?

Talk About Race — By News Wire on January 11, 2010 at 06:36

By Mythili Rangarajan for The Hindu

When I met a friend of mine recently, I found her unusually sad which is against her otherwise cheerful nature. When I asked her the reason for her disorientation, she said to me, “Go watch the documentary ‘Holy Wives’ by Ritesh Sharma. It depicts the truly heartrending stories and the plight of the Devadasis of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. You will then realise the cause of my sadness and despondency.”

When I finally managed to watch it, I realised how bold the young documentary maker had been, having spent over two years traversing the interior territories of these three States researching this subject, not to mention all the attendant risks associated with such whistle-blowing.

The documentary consists of poignant real tales of cruelty and brutality of some socially powerful men and to what abysmal sadism they can stoop to quench their insatiable lust by perpetuating the barbaric exploitation of these illiterate Devadasis.

This tribe has children whose paternity can never be established by any court of law. It suits the entire community to keep this segment of our population illiterate and unaware of their fundamental rights to exist with dignity and self-respect, thanks to an indifferent police force, bureaucracy and our respected elected representatives that constitute our State and Central governments.

Should Raja Ram Mohan Roy or Mahatma Gandhi be alive today, they would have died a thousand deaths out of national shame.

It appears that there is no effective legislation against this horrific system in the garb of religious practice/ritual in either Karnataka or Madhya Pradesh and although there is one in Andhra Pradesh, it is marred by tardy implementation.

This leads us nowhere. It is puzzling how the existing laws against immoral trafficking and flesh trade cannot be used by these States to put an end to such inhuman slavery in the name of religious rituals. The film maker has not used any makeovers to record the episodes in order to make the stories flow through the horse’s mouths.

When you go through the entire length of the documentary, it depresses you no end to view the gory details of the tortures inflicted upon these voiceless women. Even little girls are not spared by the sadistic and socially powerful dons. Bollywood movies made on this subject pale into insignificance when you see the reality depicted in the documentary.

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