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Lalita Kamble, 50, is photographed in the doorway of her home with her niece. Kamble went blind at a young age and so, when she was eight years old, her parents dedicated her as a Devadasi. "They said you can be buried as a married person now because you're married to Yellamma," she says, referring to the ritual of burying unmarried women in a lying down position while married women are buried sitting up. "I wished I could get married but I knew no man would marry because because of my blindness," she adds. Through a dairy program set up by an organization called Vimochana Sangha which was founded to dismantle the Devadasi system, Kamble now takes care of a water buffalo and makes some income from the sale of its milk. Despite her acceptance of her lot in life, she does not support the continuation of the Devadasi system.

Filename
25devadasistory.jpg
Copyright
Julia Cumes
Image Size
4022x2799 / 1.1MB
Contained in galleries
God's Prostitutes--Investigating India's Devadasi System, Portraits
Lalita Kamble, 50, is photographed in the doorway of her home with her niece. Kamble went blind at a young age and so, when she was eight years old, her parents dedicated her as a Devadasi. "They said you can be buried as a married person now because you're married to Yellamma," she says, referring to the ritual of burying unmarried women in a lying down position while married women are buried sitting up. "I wished I could get married but I knew no man would marry because because of my blindness," she adds. Through a dairy program set up by an organization called Vimochana Sangha which was founded to dismantle the Devadasi system, Kamble now takes care of a water buffalo and makes some income from the sale of its milk. Despite her acceptance of her lot in life, she does not support the continuation of the Devadasi system.