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Journalism of Courage
Undeterred by the alleged “threats” they received after they climbed the prohibited shrine arena at Shani Shingnapur in Ahmednagar district on Sunday, the four women from Pune have now decided to galvanise a force of 400 and storm the temple premises to break the age-old tradition which prevents women from offering worship to Lord Shani from close quarters.
On Sunday, the four women breaching the strict security cordon had almost climbed the platform where the rock idol of Lord Shani has been installed. The platform is barricaded, preventing both men and women from going close to the idol. “We wanted to offer worship to Shani Devtha from close quarters. Therefore we climbed the stairs to move onto the platform. Just when we were one step away from landing on to the concrete platform, we were blocked and pushed back,” said Trupti Desai, a resident of Balajinagar in Pune.
Refusing to give up after their failed bid, Desai said they remained rooted to the stairs for half an hour though the male security personnel were applying all force to pull them down. “Since several of them were pulled us down, we had to finally give up,” said Desai. The women filed a complaint against the security personnel for pushing them down. No action was taken by the police against them till Monday evening.
The women alleged that the tone and tenor of some of the villagers did not sound good. “Many of them gheraoed our vehicle. Some of them brandished sticks. A couple of them were shouting for blowing up our vehicle,” alleged Priyanka Jagtap, a resident of Lohegaon. Village sarpanch Balasaheb Bankar however denied that the villagers made any threatening gesture at the women or insulted them in any manner. “In fact, we ensured their safe journey back home,” said Bankar.
Describing the “blatant discrimination” against women practised at the temple as insult to womanhood, Desai said,”If the trustees argue that there was no discrimination against women at the temple premises, then why are women not being allowed to go into the shrine arena ? Besides, why are there only male priests and not women priests ?,” she asked. Jagtap added, “In the 21st century India, how can you allow archaic mindsets to prevail ? It is because of such attitude of the few, women continue to be looked down upon in our society.”
The trustees said both men and women are not allowed to climb the shrine arena where offerings like garlands and oil are kept.
“Nobody is allowed to go close to the shrine because of the fear that they will trip on the oil offered to the Lord,” said a trustee.
Desai said on Sunday, they prevented them from climbing the platform, but will not be able to do so in future. “We are galvanising a force of 400 women. All of them will storm the temple premises and offer worship at the Shani shrine. We are fully confident nobody will be able to stop us,” she said, refusing to cite a date. “The date won’t be disclosed until we finalise the plan. In fact, we might just carry out the plan and then announce it to the world,” she said.
Assistant police inspector Prashant Mandale on Monday reiterated that no complaint was lodged by the villagers against them women. “And neither the women lodged any complaint against the villagers. The women however lodged complaint against the security personnel for pushing them down. We will take preventive action against them,” he said.
All the four women belong to Bhumata Ranragini Brigade. While Desai is graduate in arts, Jagtap is preparing for her MPSC exam. The other two include Pushpak Kevadkar who is runs a motor driving school and Durga Shukre who is a housewife. Kevadkar stays in Lohegaon while Shukre stays in Sinhagad Road area.
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