Divine intervention

The event was only one of the highlights of a daring social initiative to find a place in society, create HIV awareness and work towards preventing the disease which had spread rapidly across Mudhol, Bagalkot, Jamkhandi, Bilgi, Badami, and Hundgund, the six agrarian taluks of Bagalkot, a north Karnataka district, a good part of which was salvaged from stretches submerged by an overflowing Alamatti Dam. In the past, the ostracised Devadasis had never dared to come out of their Dalit colonies.

Mallawa, 32, of Bisanal village in Bilgi taluk was ‘dedicated’ to Renuka Devi, the presiding deity of the Yellamma temple in Saundatti in Belgaum in north Karnataka when she was barely seven. After the Muthukattu (mangalsutra made of a few pearl beads strung together on a black string) ceremony, during which young Mallawa was ‘wedded’ to the god, she became the ‘property’ of the village.

They don’t really know how the system came into being or for how many centuries it has been prevalent. “But life has not been fun for us. We might make money, buy silk sarees and jewellery, but all our lives we are made to feel like widows. Society keeps us apart and we are treated differently,’’ says Mallawa. Sitting among her friends in the huge hall in Mudhol, interacting with a group of reporters, Mallawa experiences a sense of pride. “We never thought we could have a purpose in our lives.’’

IN 2003 when the Chaitanya Mahila Sangha (CMS), backed by the Belgaum Integrated Rural Development Service (BIRDS), arrived in the villages of Mudhol taluk, it spread panic among the Devadasis. The practice of dedicating girls as devadasis is banned and punishable under the Karnataka Devadasi Act, 1982.

“Initially, we suspected CMS’ intentions as we thought they would give our names to the police or take us to a secluded spot, grab our jewels and kill us,’’ said Madhu Naduvinmane, 27, a devadasi from Rabkavi village in Jamkhandi taluk. Now, she is president of CMS, which has 5,000 members.

The women had a trying six months with taluk officials before they were allowed to register their Sangha. Today, there are several peer educators among the members actively involved in teaching devadasis about condom use, sexually transmitted diseases and personal hygiene. “But, most important, there is a sense of inclusion and mainstreaming,’’ say the women.

They fought to get midday meals in schools for their children and ensured they were allowed to participate in the Ganesha festival. “I was thrilled. Our children were allowed to dance during the festival,’’ said Madhu. “The Bagalkot experience became a model because the programme was driven by the initiative of the Devadasis,’’ says Usha Rani, programme manager of the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust, constituted by the Karnataka government for HIV intervention work in Bagalkot.

THE Devadasis are usually the eldest daughters “dedicated to the service of Goddess Yellamma’’ as a fulfillment of a vow by their parents who prayed for sons. Forced into the system, the women become commercial sex workers, drawing many customers from across the borders from Maharashtra and Goa as well. “While Chaitanya’s awareness programmes have ensured that the women insist on their partners using condoms, they have not been successful with their own lovers (in many cases, the fathers of their children) because of the emotional bond,’’ says Usharani.

With a population of 17 lakh, Bagalkot district has one of the high HIV-prevalence districts in Karnataka.

A sugarcane belt, it is home to migrant workers—at least 25,000 make the trip here every year from Maharashtra alone. The migration led to a high concentation of sex workers in Mudhol and Jamkhand taluks which now report higher risk behaviour and higher prevalence of HIV. The district reports a three per cent incidence of HIV, which is why the India Canada Collaborative HIV/AIDS Project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency and implemented by a consortium of three Canadian agencies, chose it for a comprehensive HIV programme.