Chennai:
It was a moment of pride for Shoba Ghasti, who waged a
war against the age-old Devadasi system that robbed her of her childhood at the
age of 12, as she was honoured by United States with Secretary of State’s 2012
Women of Courage Award.
The award, which was presented by US Consul General in Chennai
Jennifer McIntyre here on Wednesday, is to honour women who have demonstrated
exceptional courage, strength and leadership in advocating for human rights,
social justice and women’s equality.
Speaking after receiving the award, Shoba, who coordinated
over 3,400 volunteers working in 500 villages in Karnataka to create awareness
about the Devadasi system, said “our childhood dreams are plucked away at an
early age by parents and society when we hardly are aware of our rights.”
Although Shoba has been successful to eradicate the
Devadasi system in Belgaum, she is now working to provide relief to Devadasis,
which denies them marital status and patriarchy to their children, in 10
districts of the state.
“We don’t want just economic independence, we want our
children to be treated well also. Our goal is to empower women and children,”
said Shoba, who started as a volunteer in a non-governmental organization Mass
to later being elected as director of the institution.
“We ask society and government to provide necessary
facilities to help us come out of the system,” she said.
Later a film ‘Eyes wide Open’ was screened on the
occasion highlighting the various evils associated with the age-old system and
how girls were denied their childhood rights and women their marital status.
Later at a roundtable on women’s empowerment, panelists,
which included Geetha Ramaseshan, a lawyer for Tamil Nadu Legal Aid Board, S
Anandhi, associate professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies and
Payal Saksena, advocacy manager at EveryChild India, stressed on the need for
social protection and livelihood programme for the women who quit the system.
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