Sitavva Joddati
She leaves ‘service of God’ to save innocents.
In 2018, 46 years old, Sitavva Joddati remains unmoved by her ‘Padma Shri’ award. She was given the prestigious award for her efforts to eradicate the ‘Devadasi’ system. Sitavva says that she is simply glad to have saved hundreds of innocent girls.
Sitavva is from Kabbur village in Chikkodi Taluk. She is the sixth daughter to her parents. Parents belong to an economically backward community. She was ‘promised’ as a Devadasi by her parents.
They believed that giving the youngest daughter of a family to the service of god would reward them a son and prosperity to the family. When she turned 7, she was put through a religious ritual, after which a pearl was tied to her neck at a temple in the district.
This was a practice in north Karnataka to declare a child as a Devadasi to the larger community. That meant, she was dedicated to the service of God and she could be sexually exploited by anyone. Sitavva did not know anything about this or what was expected of her. By 17, she was the mother of 3 children.
In 1991, she met Latamala. She helped her to understand how vulnerable Sitavva was. Latamala (Managing Director of the Women Development Corporation), made her realise how harmful this practice was to her and other girls like her.
Sitavva decided to save herself and she had realised that this custom was an affront to the dignity of women. Sitavva started to think about her and her children’s future. She was shocked to know how people around her thought of her and her family. She realised that she was living differently from other women, and her children from other children.
Sitavva, along with other Devadasis used to attend religious jatras (fairs) in north Karnataka and south Maharashtra. She started speaking about evil practice in her group. Most of the other women in her group were also fed up with this line of work. And this discontent grew into a secret campaign among Devadasis. The number of dissenters touched 45 within a week.
She joined ‘Mahila Abhivrudhi Samrakshana Sansthe’ (MASS), an organisation working to eradicate the Devadasi system.
She is the CEO of MASS organisation since 2012. So far, she as an individual has managed to rescue 4,000 women from this practice, and has helped them start on another job. These women further convinced other women.
They work together to put a stop to this practice. She conducts aids and legal workshops and programmes on women and child rights, financial management, STDs and other issues. She has created over 300 self-help groups (SHG) that provide financial support to former Devadasis, through banks and micro-lenders.
