The idea that India is a model to be followed, a leader among nations, is simply foolhardy, mimiked by fools and idiots.
India has far deeper problems than can be explained in a few sentences, but the following is one example of why India will never be a power to follow until they have solved this issue ... but I suppose all cultures are the same, equal, and worthy.
The following is taken from a much longer article in The Guardian, January 22, 2011.
Shobha was the youngest of seven children and was dedicated aged eight. At 12, she was taken out of school and her first paying "partner" was her 35-year-old brother-in-law. "No one asked my consent, money talks. Girls like me grow up in living fear of reaching puberty." She was determined that her own daughter would escape the same fate. "The devadasi system isn't about religion. Its about economics. We're just traded like a commodity. I know the pains as a serving devadasi, how exploitative this practice is. We are the victims. What happened to me shouldn't happen in another's life. I want to stop this and I decided to fight."
Sometimes several generations from the same family are devadasi, like Lalitha, whose mother and grandmother were dedicated before her. Like Hanamavva, however, Lalitha is determined to stop the practice. "I was shocked to find out I have to practice this system because I have been dedicated. I was determined not to become devadasi. In my village there are 100 devadasi. About 20 are between 12 and 18. I try to persuade all my friends not to get into this evil practice but they are vulnerable. Both the parents and the community are pressuring them."
Devadasi remain common in the poorest towns and villages of provinces of the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. In 2006, the National Legal Service Authority in Bangalore launched an awareness programme for police and judges, and said there were 250,000 "devadasi" girls who had been dedicated to Yellamma and Khandoba temples. But the remoteness of many of the villages, and the continuing rise in demand from organised traffickers who pay well for young girls to fill the brothels of India's vast cities, is thwarting efforts to combat the system.
"The social customs combined with economic pressures have pushed girls into the system. The fact that not one of them is married and most of them have children not only leaves them in a traumatised condition but renders their children stigmatised forever," said an authority spokesman.
and from another Guardian article -
Now 26 and diagnosed with Aids, she has returned to her village, Mudhol in southern India, weak and unable to work. "We are a cursed community. Men use us and throw us away," she says. Applying talcum powder to her daughter's face and tying ribbons to her hair, she says: "I am going to die soon and then who will look after her?" The daughter of a devadasi, Parvatamma plans to dedicate her own daughter to Yellamma, a practice that is now outlawed in India.
[...]
Roopa, now 16, has come to buy bangles at the festival. She was dedicated to the goddess seven years ago and was told that Yellamma would protect her. Her virginity was auctioned in the village, and since then she has supported her family by working as a prostitute out of her home in a village close to Saundatti.
"The first time it was hard," she admits. In fact, her vagina was slashed with a razor blade by the man she was supposed to sleep with the first time. Her future, like that of other devadasis, is uncertain. Once they are around 45, at which point they are no longer considered attractive, devadasis try to eke out a living by becoming jogathis or begging near the temple.
[...]
BL Patil, the founder of Vimochana, an organisation working towards the eradication of the devadasi system, says that although the dedication ceremonies are banned, the practice is still prevalent, as families and priests conduct them in secret. The National Commission for Women estimate that there are 48,358 Devadasis currently in India.
"For certain SC communities [Scheduled Caste – a government classification of lower castes] this has become a way of life, sanctioned by tradition," he says. The priests conduct the ceremonies in their own houses because "it is profitable for them".
All cultures are equal, all are the same, all are worthy.
india
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