Page 148 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions

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child prostitution is “organized as a traditional, ritual and social activi-
ty”. 64 Devadasi was legally prohibited in 1982 and families who sent
their girls to temples as joginis are liable to be punished by a prison term

of a minimum of five years, but this sentence is, more often than not,
waived as devadasi is not considered a crime by the authorities but a tra-

Crispin Thorold's report for the BBC revealed the ugly face of the immoral DE-
VADASI system. It described how young girls were forced into marriages with
supposed deities at the demand
BBC, 29 June 2002 of Hindu priests, following
which they fall into the hands
of prostitution gangs.
Another aspect emphasized
by Thorold is that the
majority of these chil-
dren die young, either
due to AIDS or other in-
fectious diseases.