Sabarimala and it’s Near by Issues
- Sabarimala temple entry issue = Tussle between the temple’s right to decide for itself how its religious affairs ought to be managed, the rights of a community of devotees who believe that a bar on women’s entry is an essential religious practice, and the rights of those women seeking to assert not only their freedom to unreservedly enter and pray at the shrine, but also their rights to be recognised as equals under the Constitution.
- Sabarimala temple in Kerala raise issues about religious freedom, gender equality and the right of women to worship + custom an integral part of India’s heritage
- Ambubachi mela,Assam is also an occasion to spread awareness on menstrual hygiene while om the other hand women are prohibited to enter into sabarimala temple in kerala on the grounds of menstrual hygiene
- The Constitution-makers used inverted commas compendiously to refer to ‘permanent’ and ‘temporary’ states of untouchability. The latter is incurred by a pious Hindu in many situations —for example, a full bath cures going to a funeral or touching a corpse, a proper puja and a dip in the Ganga cures going overseas or a contact with a foreigner. Menstruation cycles render a woman impure for three days. The Constitution forbids all states of “untouchability” and imposes a total prohibition on practising it. Even freedom of religion is subject to “other provisions of this Part”, and Article 17 is clearly such a provision
- SC ruled that women of all ages may pray at sabarimala + prohibition reduced the freedom of religion to a “dead letter” + physiological and biological barriers have no place in religion + prohibition was founded on the notion that menstruating women are polluted and impure + social exclusion of women, based on menstrual status, a “form of untouchability.” + To exclude women was derogatory to equal citizenship
- Religious practices are not all based on morality and rationality .So, judicial review in such practice is questionable as it would amount to rationalising religion + belief in a deity, and the form in which he has manifested himself is a fundamental right protected by Article 25(1) of the Constitution + India is a diverse country with different religions,customs,sects etc
- Constitution exists not only to disenable entrenched structures of discrimination and prejudice, but to empower those who traditionally have been deprived of an equal citizenship
- 67-year reign of a Bombay High Court judgment that personal law, religious customs, usages and beliefs are outside the ambit of fundamental rights of equality, life and dignity came to an end with sabarimala verdict of allowing women’s entry of all ages with sabarimala temple
- Parallel between the restriction on women worshipping in Sabarimala temple and Mumbai’s famed Haji Ali Dargah. ‘exclusion’ is practised by both Hindus and Muslims and the “problem needs to be addressed’”
- With the Supreme Court extending the right of worship to women, the immediate challenge is to make it gender-friendly.