SRED has been actively Organizing Mathammas who are Dalit women dedicated to temples for dancing. The practice of Mathamma exists in villages of Three Districts of Our operational Areas namely Ranipettai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram. Mathamma is the clan Goddess (Kula Deivam) of one of the Dalit communities.
When a girl child is sick the child is taken to the temple, believing that her sickness will be cured. Then the girl children are dedicated to Goddess Mathamma, through a marriage ceremony where they tie a “mangal sutra” (Pottu thali).
During Temple festivals the girl who becomes a Mathamma has to dance in public and they are sexually harassed. It is a forced “prostitution” in the name of religion. SRED has mobilized Mathammas as “Mathamma women rehabilitation movement” for four decades to stop the temple dedication practices by facilitating mathamma women to become activists. For decades the movement has addressed the issues of Mathammas such as stopping public dancing, sexual harassment, changing the identity of Mathamma, removal of the temple “ mangal sutra” (pottu thali).
The SRED along with the Maththamma Movement created livelihood,children of Mathammas are helped with educational assistance, health education given on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases.
SRED supported Maththamas to become leaders of the village communities, helped with Government entitlements and loans. SRED built houses for Mathamma women. There was a constant work with the general community to change their mindset on temple dedication of Dalit Women. As a result, Mathammas have stopped public dancing, Mathamma children are enrolled in schools and advocacy was carried out to admit children in schools without fathers’ names. There was a belief the goddess will punish the a man who marries a mathamma and he would become blind. That has changed now and Mathammas are married like others now.
Case study of Devi:
Belongs to Kaverirajapuram, Thirutani Taluk, and Thiruvallur district born in Arunthathi family. Second daughter of Ragavaiah and Cnengamma.
Their family goddess is Mathamma. She was born as a sick child. The traditional superstitious believes are if a girl child is sick she will be dedicated to the goddess Mathamma thinking she will be cured by goddess. If it’s so she will be dedicated. This is also due to lack of proper health service in the village and also refer to “Boy child” preferences.
Devi at the age of seven after puberty a ceremonial way she was married to the goddess Mathamma and Named after the goddess. “It was the summer month of Vaikasi-Anni,1 the month of Mathamma festival in our village and I was then seven years old. My relatives and parents decorated me as a bride and placed me in front of the goddess Mathamma for the wedding. An elaborate ritual followed with offerings of coconut and campor. Vessels filled with fresh grain, lemon, milk, turmeric water and cows’ urine were offered to the temple. Amidst drum beat, dancing and drinking, with a pestle dipped in turmeric water and milk, I was marked as a Mathamma. An elderly woman from our community tied the thali. From then on as a young girl dedicated to the Goddess Mathamma, I have been dancing in several villages during this festival and earned my livelihood. Men offered money and gifts and offered themselves too. Caste was not a constraint for choosing my sexual partner but, when we make our choices, our caste men and our families intervene and regulate our lives since we the Mathammas are dependent on them for our livelihood.
(Interview with Devi Mathamma, Valluvapuram village)14 September 2010
A 5 days temple festival in July every year is celebrated to this goddess. In her village or in other villages she danced day and night with the music group which also survived by earning through her dances. She is given alcohol and to dance erotically with yellow saree drenched with water, with drum beats, carrying “Theesatti” in her (a hot pot full of fire) hand while dancing.
The men both young and old from other communities watching her dance, go closer to pin rupees on her blouse ,near her breast, invite her to sleep with them. Once Devi became Mathamma, she should not marry since she is married to the goddess, and becomes a “Public Property” she is sexually harassed, abused in public places calling her as Mathamma. Sexually exploited all exploitation, harassment without her consent mental depression, wounded psyche and forces her to become a “Religious Sanctioned Prostitute”.
Devi as an Agricultural worker due to religious fundamentalist practices loses her dignity and called as Mathamma. A man lived with Devi exploited her sexually till she gave birth to a child. She was always abused by the man with whom she lived as saying “you are Mathamma, not ordinary women” then the man left her with a child. The child is also faces the society as a fatherless, (refer to the word Gandhi called Dalits as ‘Harijan’) means children of god-fatherless. The child during school admission Devi used ‘Murugan’ the god as her son’s father.
At the work place Devi is also abused and faced humiliation at the hands of other workers in the working place. She has no permanent income, earns only by dancing in temple festivals, no house, landless, uneducated and unskilled, she lived without any resources. She joined the RWLM-Rural Women’s Liberation Movement in 2000. She realized the life situations of other Rural Women. She wanted to change her name not to be called as Mathamma but choose her own name to be called as Devi.
From Rural Women Liberation Movement (RWLM), she with her leadership formed a movement called “Mathamma Liberation Movement” through which she started visiting Mathammas in other villages and liberated them from dancing. During temple festivals, as a social transformation in many villages now the men are dancing wearing saree as women. She found happiness in doing this.She built a house lived with her son aged 23, soon after the son’s marriage, the son drove her out of her house, son himself was not willing to accept her being Mathamma, influenced by his in -Laws. She stayed at the community Centre of the movement in that village.
She found a man second time and lived with him for a year. She was not accepted by the villagers. She moved from place to place, faced cruelty, domestic violence, beaten up by the man she has chosen to live with. He also ill treated her beaten her, questioning her chastity suspecting her saying that she had sexual relations with many as Mathamma and she will continue to do so.
Devi – very courageous dalit women leader confronted, challenged governments to give housing land to Mathammas. She will not accept to be called as Mathamma. She did not allow police to enter her village to investigate, stop them from destroying their earnings. She went to all the high level bureaucrats petitioned to get housing, for voting rights, credits, children’s education for all Mathammas.
She demanded the state to recognize other Mathammas rights and for special government schemes for them. She challenged the villagers to treat equally with all men and women. She visited villages where the festival is conducted and inform police to stop Mathamma dancing and stopped women dancing erotically in public as Mathammas.
Finally before her death, she took out the Mangalyam, Thali tied as a marriage symbol from the goddess and throw it back to the goddess saying “it’s you, your people, the society, made me to suffer throughout my life”. This was a revolutionary act but for the villagers it was considered to be bad omen.
Comments