Empower Children of Devadasis as Change Agents

Women and young girls from socio-economically disadvantaged Devadasi communities are forced into prostitution as part of a cultural belief. The girls who are victims of the system witness abuse, violence and discrimination. Similar is the case of girls who although not victims, have seen their mothers go through insults and hardship. These experiences have disturbed the well-being of the children of Devadasis. They are filled with shame and fear which stops them from moving ahead in life. Many girls drop out of school, don't step out of homes, and live in their misery. Society doesn't help either. They are treated without respect and denied their rights. These factors keep the community socio-economically downtrodden.

Our project, Children GOOD (Getting Out of the Devadasi system) empowers children of Devadasis such that they break the shackles of oppression and maximise their potential. We have identified a major hindrance to the community's development to be the distraught mindset and societal attitude toward them.

To address this, we plan to coach 2000 adolescent girl children of Devadasis (12-18 years) in 10 life skills such as confidence building, communication, resilience, leadership, self-belief and others such that they can mould themselves into stronger women. This strength will motivate them to move towards achieving their goals like higher education and getting jobs of their choice, among others.

Apart from this, we plan to group the children in Children's Clubs (Kishori clubs) where apart from life skills we will teach them tools to bring about changes in their villages. This concept is called Child Led Research where the girls will learn advocacy, community mapping, photography, reporting and videography so that they will be able to document village-level problems to concerned officials and work for their redressal.

The life skills component will equip the girls to be stronger women and give them the courage to break their barriers. These sessions will encourage girls to study better, work harder and approach life with confidence and the belief they too are worthy and can achieve whatever they wish.

The Child Led Research component will improve the way society sees children of Devadasis and their community. Once girls begin to take village-level issues into their hands and work to solve them, their surrounding society will respect and value them. They will even be grateful and extend support to the community.

From 2019 to early 2022, we have empowered 2,764 girls in the two above components which have led to the continuation of their education with a section of them being the first secondary school graduates in their families. Girls have also opted for vocational skill training such as tailoring, driving and computer skills, moving towards financial freedom and security. Many girls also solved village-level problems such as drainage, sanitation, school construction, and road construction among others which has made life better for their fellow villagers.

"We are so proud of children of Devadasis", said a local panchayat officer.

Since April 2022, we plan to empower 2000 more girls for which we need your support. Please donate below to help us in our journey.