Row over women's entry returns to haunt Kerala's famed Sabarimala shrine

Trivandrum: The head of a temple administration board controlling Kerala's famed Sabarimala hill shrine is under fire from women across the country over his purported comment that he will allow women between the age group of 10 to 15 inside the temple only after a machine is invented to confirm that they are menstruating.
The temple thronged by millions of devotees from all over India has not been allowing menstruating women in the temple premises citing a legend that says 'impure' women could deter the celibacy vow taken by Ayyappan, the main deity in the temple, who remained a chronic-bachelor throughout his life.
A young woman named Nikita Azad has fuelled the attack on Prayar Gopalakrishnan, president of the Travancore Devaswom Board that controls the temples in the southern districts, including the Sabarimala shrine by launching a "Happy to Bleed" campaign on Facebook.
Pointing out the gender issues implicit in the comment, she called on women "to hold placards/sanitary napkins/charts saying Happy to Bleed" and post the pictures on their profiles or the campaign page "to oppose the shame game played by patriarchal society since ages."
Out of 4,300 people invited to join the 'Happy to Bleed' campaign, 360 have confirmed and 862 have expressed interest since it was launched on Saturday. The campaign is also trending on Twitter and other social networking sites.
Gopalakrishnan, who was recently appointed as the temple board chief, said that the campaign against him was based on quotes taken out of context by a section of the media. He told Khaleej Times that he had made the reference about the machine when a reporter asked him about some recent incidents of police stopping women aged above 50 from entering the temple.
"When I pointed out that this could be because women these days look younger than their real age, a reporter asked whether machines used for scanning human bodies could not be used for determining whether a woman had reached menopause. I replied that there were no such machines currently available and I would consider the suggestion whenever such a machine becomes available," he said.
He said that a section of the media attributed the suggestion to him leading to the current campaign. He said that it would not deter him from his duty to protect the purity and divinity of the temple. He affirmed that he will not allow women between the age of 10 and 50 inside the temple as long as he remained in the position.
He said that he was ready to even forgo his position for the sake of protecting the custom of the temple. The demand for removing the restriction is a long one. However, the government and even the court have refused to interfere in the issue.
The state high court, which upheld the restriction, had on November 15 directed the temple authorities to implement it more effectively. A petition filed by the Young Lawyers Association of India is pending before the Supreme Court now.
news@khaleejtimes.com