This story by Sumit Kumar Singh originally appeared on Global Voices on November 28, 2025.
Entrenched in temple culture and artistic tradition of India, the Devadasi system, where young girls are ritually committed to a deity and projected to serve temples forever, once enjoyed a cultural and artistic status of prestige; however, over the centuries, it has deteriorated into a hereditary system of caste domination, gendered exploitation, and inherited marginalisation.
Today, Devadasis are women and girls who are not allowed to enjoy social and legal rights and are also forcibly subjected to lives of sexual servitude in the name of religious sanction.
The practice continues in many areas, even decades after its legislative prohibition in 1947, which reveals inefficiencies of punitive and symbolic policy that did not reform and also didn’t dismantle the social structures that supported the system.
The 2025 Devadasi Abolition Bill by the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka frames itself as a radical change against this strategy and aims to ensure rights, dignity, and agency via participatory reform and not prohibition only.
The Karnataka Devadasi (Prevention, Prohibition, Relief and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2025, aims to “conscientize” the public on the issue of girls and women being dedicated as devadasis by subjecting them to liberation from all forms of exploitation.
The “Principle of conscientisation” guides the entire endeavour for the liberation of the oppressor and the oppressed by raising the public’s awareness around the issue. Awareness campaigns, health and legal education have been envisaged to educate society on this issue and to promote scientific temper and humanism.
Contrary to past prohibitive approaches, this law is couched in the language of rights and participation and reconfigures devadasis as not merely passive recipients of state largesse, but as rights-bearers and agents in the policy-making process. What originally was a ritual service was transformed into an institution, since the female became the object of devotion and domination.
One of the major challenges in addressing the Devadasi system is the absence of reliable data on its prevalence. In 2011, the National Commission for Women estimated there were 48,358 Devadasis in India at the time. However, a 2015 Sampark Report submitted to the ILO placed the figure much higher, at nearly 450,000.
In Karnataka, surveys by the Karnataka State Women’s Development Corporation (KSWDC) found 22,873 Devadasis in 1993–94 and an additional 23,787 in 2007–08, bringing the total to about 46,660 Devadasis in the state alone.
The Devadasi system is said to be an ancient socio-religious practice in India, with its presence as early as the 6th century CE. It flourished during the early medieval period, said to be between the 7th and the 12th century, especially in southern India.
The foundations of the tradition lay in temple culture; hence, women were offered and dedicated as servitors to deities. They were held in high regard, viewed as embodiments of auspiciousness, freedom, and worship.
Their religious function was to perform rituals and ceremonies, and to represent culture and the arts to sustain the temple; for example, through classical dance and music which were viewed as a form of worship. As a result of royal patronage and the benevolence of the wealthy classes, they also enjoyed property rights, social esteem, and economic security.
In recent decades, after being deprived of their traditional roles, many Devadasis were exploited, and the system devolved into one of prostitution and concubinage. In general, they were meant to be socially shamed and pushed aside; however, in some cases, residual rights allowed them to retain control over their earnings or ownership of land.
The decline of the Devadasi system in India occurred gradually. In hopes of getting their share of justice, laws were enacted post-independence, indicating a regional character to the practice.
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One of the first legal interventions was the Bombay Devadasi Protection Act, 1934, which criminalised the dedication of women, within the existing Devadasi system in what was then the Bombay Presidency (current day Maharashtra, and some parts of Karnataka).
Shortly thereafter came the Madras Devadasis (Prevention of Dedication) Act, 1947, which prohibited the system within the borders of what was the Madras Presidency at that time, which broadly covered what is the current-day Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh.
Following independence, states passed additional laws against the Devadasi system. The Karnataka Devadasis (Prohibition of Devotion) Act, 1982, prohibited girls from being devoted to temples and defined punishments for those within temple management who either encouraged or assisted with the practice. Subsequently, the Andhra Pradesh Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1988, followed suit, prohibiting the system and including provisions to rehabilitate the women.
Then came the Maharashtra Devadasi Abolition Act, 2005, which embedded previous legislation and consolidated its laws. These laws were nothing more than a mere prohibition without freedom. The continuation of the practice was a testament to the failure of punitive policy and the need for more profound reform.
The Bill of 2025 is a break from the norm. It was created with public participation in as more than 15,000 devadasi women, activists, and scholars were consulted throughout the drafting process. One of the many provisions supporting liberation is granting legal identity and dignity to Devadasi children.
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Children born into the Devadasi institution were traditionally left without the law recognizing their paternal identity and were deprived of inheritance rights due to their lack of documented paternal identity. To correct this injustice, the Bill provides that any child born to a Devadasi woman can ascertain the identity of her father, as the child may approach the taluk Committee to apply for recognition of such a paternal bond.
If he denies being the father, the District Court can order DNA testing, and the father’s denial can be treated as a negative inference. The Bill also provides that a child born of a Devadasi woman is presumed to be legitimate and can inherit the mother and father’s property.
The bill charts the whole path to economic independence and social integration. It grants the right to compensation in the case of housing to all Devadasi families, and prescribes detailed parameters in the case of hygiene, comfort, and privacy, and grants concessions to lesser-benefited remaining family members.
Agricultural land will be preferably reserved by the State for the dependents living on agriculture, particularly the registered groups of Devadasis, to push them towards cooperative farming. The Bill realises that rights are not achieved by prohibition, but by replacing the systems of exploitation with dignity, opportunities, and equality.
Manjula Malagi, the Devadasi Helpdesk Coordinator at Sakhi Trust, said that the 2025 Devadasi Act is the result of 10 years of advocacy from the Devadasi community.
Said R. V. Chandrashekar Ramenahalli, of the National Law School of India University’s Centre for the Study of Social Inclusion and Inclusive Policy played a crucial role in getting the Act passed, and called the Act “a holistic and rights-based legislation rooted in constitutional morality.”
Through the assertion of the right to identity, property, livelihood, and self-determination, the Bill provides a template of reform that is not punitive but transformative, not exclusionary but inclusive.
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