Abandoned, Devadasis hit AIDS dead end

We were allowed to enter their homes on one condition. 8216;8216;You must promise you will not ask a Devadasi to reveal whether she has AI...

We were allowed to enter their homes on one condition. 8216;8216;You must promise you will not ask a Devadasi to reveal whether she has AIDS,8217;8217; a gharwali or brothel owner at Gokulnagar told us. 8216;8216;You may look at a patient from afar, but when a Devadasi gets AIDS only she knows and I know.8217;8217;

The Devadasi system, intended as a ritualistic act of appeasement, forbids the girls from marrying anyone else. The 500-odd Devdasis trapped in the flesh trade in Sangli now squabble over clients. At stake is Rs 50 per man.

They cannot afford to lose customers 8212; truck driver, college student or wealthy grape-growers. They work the nights , leaving hospital visits for the worst days. But they cannot afford anti-retroviral drugs. There8217;s little left after sending money orders home and their daughters are pulled out of school when money runs out.

8216;8216;We cannot read or write but we know what ARV is,8217;8217; says Kamalabai, made a Devadasi with three of her seven sisters. They wear red and white beads, indicating they won8217;t marry.

Gokulnagar is a settlement of 260 rooms, three or four Devadasis in each. In the afternoons, they chat about hospitals and medical forms. If an inmate dies of AIDS, they pool funds for the funeral. 8216;8216;When funerals become frequent, the question uppermost is who8217;s next?8217;8217; says a booklet of the Veshya AIDS Muqabla Parishad.

Men are rejected if they refuse to use condoms, though some give in when it8217;s their maalak owner sulking. 8216;8216;Even if a man shows me Rs 500 I8217;ll ask him to wear a condom,8217;8217; says Kavitha as she bathes her newborn.

Remka spent Rs 30,000 on the wedding of three brothers. 8216;8216;Now, I can8217;t send my daughter to school,8217;8217; she says. Daughter Rekha is a Devadasi too. Her favourite movie she watched it twice is Devdas. She and her friends splurge Rs 5 a poster on the pin-up girls they cannot be; their favourites: Aishwarya, Amisha and Kajol.