Sponsor the education of a girl child from a Devadasi family

The Devadasi system which began as a form of worship, is now a religious sanction given to prostitution of young girls from lower caste Devadasi families.

The system is the main reason for young girls post their puberty to get into sex work. This is an institutional exploitation of young girls in the name of culture and tradition by those with vested interests.

As a result, the girl child is a victim of sexual exploitation, physical abuse and social discrimination. Children of Devadasis who are not part of the system are still highly vulnerable to abuse and are treated as social taboos.

As per a survey by the Karnataka State Women's University in 2018, there are 80,000 Devadasis in North Karnataka alone, making the region extremely vulnerable for young girls from the community.

The result of this is that the girl's education gets affected. She drops out of school either due to dedication induced by poverty/parental pressure or due to feelings of humiliation by peers at school. The incidence of post pubertal adolescent girls from Devadasi families is very high in the regions of North Karnataka. Once they drop out, the girls are even more at risk of getting back into the vicious cycle of sex work, abuse and exploitation.

Our project, Children Empowerment for Getting Out of the Devadasi System or Children GOOD, addresses exploitation in the Devadasi system prevalent in 5 districts of North Karnataka - Vijayapura, Belagavi, Ballari, Koppal and Bagalkot. We reach out to a total of around 2,600 girls by grouping them in Kishori Clubs, empowering them through tools of child participation and child empowerment.

The project plans to scale up its interventions by providing education support to 500 of these girls (100 from each district - presently school going) who have been identified as high risk dropouts.

Each girl will be provided with the following for one academic year :

1. Support with tuition fee
2. School books and other study material
3. School Uniform
4. Life Skills training focussing on the importance of education for a good life

Access to these resources will help retain the girls in school as it would not be strain on their economic capabilities. The life skills training through Kishori Clubs will give train the girls in confidence building, goal setting, resilience and ways to cope up with stress and anxiety, ultimately with them realising that continuing their education is key for a better life and a brighter future.

The impact created would be

1. Reduction in dropout rates among school going girls from Devadasi families
2. Reduction in the risk of school going Devadasi girls being abused and sexually exploited
3. Belief, optimism, ambition and willingness in the girls to work towards a better life by completing their education.