In lower caste Devadasi communities from North Karnataka, post pubertal girls are dedicated to a life of sex work as part of a societal practice. We fight for the rights of these girls and enrol them in schools. We provide them opportunities for alternative means of livelihood and train them to speak up against injustice.
Country Manager India
Devadasi is the name of an ancient tradition found in South India. Traditionally, parents give away one or more daughters in the name of their religion to spend the rest of their lives in the service of a temple. The initiation ceremony of these girls into the temple is similar to a wedding party.
It is estimated that there are about 80,000 Devadasi women in North Karnataka, twenty percent of whom are under the age of 18. In many cases, the girls are even younger than 14 years old when they enter the system. As soon as the exploitation has started, the girls need to drop out of school and become isolated. They are also often treated badly by the men who exploit them. They run all kinds of risks, for example contracting STDs such as HIV, or ending up with an unwanted pregnancy.
The Devadasi System in lower caste communities exploits young girls and women in the name of tradition. After a ceremony, they are deemed to a life of sex work. The children and young girls from the community are isolated, face stigma, and drop out from school. Generations of women in the same family undergo these challenges: the daughter of a mother in the Devadasi-system often faces the same faith. Due to a lack of vocational skills, education, and alternative livelihood opportunities, they are highly vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence. Hence, they remain socio-economically oppressed.
We combat child sexual exploitation in the Devadasi community through child participation and provision of services that make the empowerment of children possible.
With the GOOD project, Terre des Hommes Netherlands works in five districts in 51 villages in North Karnataka to protect children against sexual exploitation. What we do:
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The results we achieved in 2022 include the following:
The publication 'Tales of Girl Power!' bundles stories about the success and impact of building the resilience of girls in the Devadasi system.
Amrita, a teenage girl, belongs to a socio-economically disadvantaged Devadasi community in North Karnataka, I…
In India, Terre des Hommes Netherlands addresses child labour, child sexual exploitation, child marriage and o…
In India, the Devadasi System in lower caste communities exploits young girls and women in the name of traditi…
The girls from Durga Devi Kishori group represent the courage and might their names stand for. A group of 20,…
It was Akhila’s wedding day. She was only 15. She sat on the dais, putting on a bright red saree, feeling like…
“The pandemic affected not only my family but also other community members. We were in a very poor economic st…
When the SSLC board exams were to take place, children of Devadasis from Terre des Hommes Netherlands’ Childre…
Thanks to your support, in 2018 we were able to work on tackling child labor in the mica mines in India, child…