Jogini System Still Plagues Rural India

ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA - AUGUST 23: Yellama, 31, relaxes in her home with her daughter Anitha, 5, in this photo taken on August 23, 2005 in Mehbubnagar, in Andhra Pradesh, India. She is a Jogini, or "servant of god" and was married off to the local deity when she was seven years old because her parents did not have a male child to support them . They believed it was better to keep her in their village and the only way to do this is to marry her to the goddess. After the cermony she is unable to marry any man and becomes the property of the men in the village. On the night of her initiation, after reaching puberty, the joginis are 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 these girls. 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. The practice dates back some 2,000 years and is still deeply ingrained in the local Telangana culture. (Photo by Ami Vitale/Getty Images)
ANDHRA PRADESH, INDIA - AUGUST 23: Yellama, 31, relaxes in her home with her daughter Anitha, 5, in this photo taken on August 23, 2005 in Mehbubnagar, in Andhra Pradesh, India. She is a Jogini, or "servant of god" and was married off to the local deity when she was seven years old because her parents did not have a male child to support them . They believed it was better to keep her in their village and the only way to do this is to marry her to the goddess. After the cermony she is unable to marry any man and becomes the property of the men in the village. On the night of her initiation, after reaching puberty, the joginis are 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 these girls. 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. The practice dates back some 2,000 years and is still deeply ingrained in the local Telangana culture. (Photo by Ami Vitale/Getty Images)
Jogini System Still Plagues Rural India
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Credit:
Ami Vitale / Contributor
Editorial #:
72032296
Collection:
Getty Images News
Date created:
September 28, 2006
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Source:
Getty Images Europe
Object name:
72018214_jog026