In AP, joginis see a way out from a centuries-old damning tradition

While Women’s Day was being "celebrated" in many parts this year, a village in Andhra Pradesh’s Mahbubnagar was getting ready to enact a medieval drama that does little for any woman’s self-respect. The highlight of the popular three-day annual Polepalli jatra—tying a naked woman to a wicker basket and hoisting her up in the air at the end of a 120-feet long pole. Perched precariously, the woman, revered as a jogini or living goddess, showers vermillion and flowers on a crowd of jostling pilgrims gathered below.

Her reward for putting life and dignity on the line for this rather unusual "blessing" is some 40-odd rupees and a bottle of country liquor. "I wouldn’t object if the joginis were given the respect due to a goddess all year round...most of the time they are treated like common prostitutes," says Grace Nirmala, who, along with a group of ex-joginis, was instrumental in forcing a ban on the customary parade at this year’s jatra.

Jogini, Mathamma, Basivi—in different regions of Andhra Pradesh they go by different names but they are all variations of a similar tradition of sexual exploitation of poor, illiterate Dalit women in the name of religion. These girls are married off to the local deity, Yellamma, making goddesses of them and forfeiting their own right to marry. The joginis or "servants of god" then become the property of the men in the village. On the night of her initiation, after reaching puberty, the young girl is normally offered to an upper caste village elder or landlord. As months and years go by, most of the men in the village end up exploiting her.

There are an estimated 42,000 joginis in Andhra Pradesh today. The Jogini Abolition Act of ’88 hasn’t been able to totally root out the practice, which dates back some 2,000 years and is still deeply ingrained in Telangana culture. "In the remote villages there is no one to implement the law. Often people are unaware that it’s an illegal practice," says Hajjamma, a 30-year-old mother of two who was made a jogini when she turned 13. Today, she is district convenor of the Andhra Pradesh Jogini Vyavastha Vyathireka Porata Sanghatana and an active campaigner for the cause.

The organisation runs temporary shelters for the children of joginis, helps them get into school. It also rehabilitates older joginis and liaises with the government on welfare schemes. Hajjamma says her first priority is to prevent new initiations. "When I was made a jogini, I had no idea about what I was being pushed into.... But today there is a law and I use it to try and ensure that nobody else is forced into such a damned life," she says. Hajjamma was amongst the first joginis school teacher-turned-activist Nirmala met, at a skills-training workshop for Dalit women in Mahbubnagar a decade ago. She says it was Hajjamma who educated her about their plight. The real turning point though came when she met a handicapped girl who had been forced to become a jogini by her parents because they couldn’t afford the dowry needed to marry her off. "She was in terrible physical and mental shape as she was earning just 50 paise to 1 rupee from each client...and she also had to take care of her one-year-old daughter," says Nirmala.The traumatised woman and the five children of another jogini—who were begging on the streets—inspired Nirmala to open a temporary shelter. What began as a shelter for 22 children is now a network of similar establishments in Mahbubnagar, Rangareddy and Chittor districts.

Nirmala has ignored death threats and once ran a door-to-door campaign in 1995-96 to garner support for Hajjamma’s marriage to the man she loved. Marriage was taboo, as the belief was that the entire village would be cursed if a jogini was allowed to marry. "The upper caste folk tried to drive us out but we finally managed to convince the young Dalit men to come out in support," says Nirmala. This encouraged at least half-a-dozen other ex-joginis in the area to tie the knot. Nirmala counsels them on the need for monogamous relationships as well as about AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. The real challenge, she says, is creating awareness to eradicate the practice, making way for a social climate where ex-joginis and their children can begin a new life. For more details, contact: Ashray/APJVPS, 309/Parthani Towers, Golconda X Road, Musheerabad, Hyderabad 500020. E-mail: apjvps@rediffmail.com. Ph: 040-6821120.