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Devadasi Practice in India

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Devadasi Practice in India Gender based Violence on Scheduled Caste Girls: A Rapid Assessment of the Devadasi Practice in India Submitted to International Labour Organisation (ILO) New Delhi By Sampark, Bangalore August, 2015 August, 2014 Gender based Violence on Scheduled Caste Girls: A Rapid Assessment of the Devadasi Practice in India 1. CONTENTS I. Acknowledgements 7 II. Abbreviations 9 III. Executive Summary 11 PART I – INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES 1. Introduction ........................................................................ 17 1.1. Objectives.................................................................................................................................... 18 1.2 The Research Methodology ........................................................................................................ 19 1.2.1 Consultative Workshop with Stakeholders ......................................................................... 19 1.2.2. Profile of 175 Devadasis. ..................................................................................................... 19 1.2.3. In Depth Case Studies ......................................................................................................... 20 1.2.4. Focus Group Discussions ..................................................................................................... 21 1.2.5 Key informant interviews .................................................................................................... 21 1.2.5. Sharing and Validation of the Findings of the Results ........................................................ 22 PART II – BACKGROUND OF DEVADASI PRACTICE 2. The Devadasi System– History ............................................. 22 2.1. The Colonial Era .......................................................................................................................... 23 2.2. Current Context .......................................................................................................................... 24 2.3. The Estimated Number of Devadasis .......................................................................................... 25 2 PART III–LIVELIHOODS OFTHE DEVADASIS 3. The Devadasi Practice.......................................................... 28 3.1. Caste ............................................................................................................................................ 28 3.2. Age of dedication ........................................................................................................................ 31 3.3. Key people involved in the induction ......................................................................................... 32 3.4. Reasons for Dedication ............................................................................................................... 34 3.5. Age at which they had their first partner.................................................................................... 36 3.6. Sourcing of partners .................................................................................................................... 37 3.7. Caste and social based discrimination ........................................................................................ 37 3.8. Decision making within the family .............................................................................................. 41 4. Economic Status .................................................................. 42 4.1. Education .................................................................................................................................... 42 4.2. Family and their children ............................................................................................................ 43 4.3. Skill Development of Children..................................................................................................... 44 4.4. Ownership of Assets ................................................................................................................... 46 4.5. Housing ....................................................................................................................................... 47 4.6. Migration..................................................................................................................................... 47 4.7. Type of work ............................................................................................................................... 49 4.8. Income earned by devadasis....................................................................................................... 51 5. Access to Financial Products ................................................ 56 5.1. Ability to Save ............................................................................................................................. 56 5.2. Sources of Credit ......................................................................................................................... 59 5.3. Insurance coverage ..................................................................................................................... 60 6. Occupational Health and Safety ........................................... 61 6.1. Health condition in the last one year .......................................................................................... 61 6.2. Types of Illness ............................................................................................................................ 62 6.3. Protected Sexual intercourse ...................................................................................................... 62 6.4. Access to Healthcare ................................................................................................................... 65 3 7. Official Identity and Access to Social Welfare Schemes ........ 68 7.1. Awareness and Access to State run Schemes ............................................................................. 69 7.2. Sources of Information ............................................................................................................... 74 8. Collectivization and Access to Legal Services ........................ 75 8.1. Access to Collectives ................................................................................................................... 75 8.2. Source of information about collectives ..................................................................................... 76 8.3. Perceived benefits from membership ........................................................................................ 77 8.4. Access to Legal justice ................................................................................................................. 77 PART IV- CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMENDATIONS 9. Conclusions ......................................................................... 79 9.1. The Caste based discrimination .................................................................................................. 79 9.2. Gender and caste discrimination. ............................................................................................... 80 9.3. Cultural practice perpetuating forced labour ............................................................................. 83 9.4. Child labour and child marriage .................................................................................................. 84 9.5. Sex work or slavery? ................................................................................................................... 84 9.6. Gender norms as basis for practice ............................................................................................ 87 9.7. Unacceptable form of work ........................................................................................................ 87 9.7.1. Lack of Fundamental Rights at Work: ................................................................................. 88 9.7.2. Risks of Lives, Health and Security: ..................................................................................... 89 9.7.3. Extreme Poverty .................................................................................................................. 91 10. Recommendations ............................................................ 92 10.1. Information and Monitoring ................................................................................................... 92 10.2. Providing more assets and resources ..................................................................................... 93 10.3. Organisation building .............................................................................................................. 94 10.4. Changing norms and institutions ............................................................................................ 95 4 List of Tables Table 1 District wise distribution of research respondents ........................................................................ 20 Table 2: Stakeholder interviews.................................................................................................................. 21 Table 3: Number of Devadasis in the Three Study States ........................................................................... 25 Table 4: Age of the research respondents .................................................................................................. 26 Table 5: District wise caste distribution .....................................................................................................
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