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Temple Prostitution in India: An Exploitative Practice in the Name of Religion
Abstract
The practice of ‘marrying' young girls of lower castes to gods and goddesses is one of the oldest cultural practices in India. This practice is called the devadasi system in which minor girls belonging to the Scheduled Castes are sexually exploited by temple priests and other high caste men in the name of religion. The term ‘devadasi' is a Sanskrit word which means ‘female slave of God.' The devadasi system is also seen as religious sanctioned prostitution in India. Note that, despite the practice being abolished by various state legislations in India, there are approximately more than 48,000 devadasis in the country according to the data by the National Commission for Women, New Delhi. Further, as per the National Human Rights Commission, the state of Andhra Pradesh, India alone had over 25,000 devadasis in 2015 with girls as young as 12 years old who were being pushed into prostitution in the nearby states of Karnataka and Maharashtra. This chapter therefore aims to highlight the reasons behind this social evil considering the broader interconnections between law and religion.
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