Post puberty, adolescent girls from lower caste Devadasi communities are dedicated as sex workers. A practice deep rooted in socio-cultural exploitation, children of Devadasis are abused and discriminated against; most of them drop out of schools. Generations of women in the same family engage in the practice, making even the children who are not dedicated, vulnerable.
We tackle child exploitation in the Devadasi community through child participation for advocacy, education and skill development, working with law enforcement agencies and by sensitising communities.
We work in 163 villages across 5 districts of North Karnataka where the practice is most prevalent,
Ballari, Koppala, Bagalkot, Vijayapura and Belagavi reaching out to around 5860 girls
Enrolling back at-risk children into the education system – Child exploitation addressed
Kishori children have identified children below the age of 18 within their group and in the community who have discontinued education. They have collectively spoken to/discussed with teachers and parents making them understand the importance of education and have re-enrolled them which ensured children are safe and protected from dedication and child marriage. Identified cases have been reported by children to the village heads and concerned authorities (1098 Childline) and have been stopped successfully.
Prevented from dedication – 05
Child marriage prevented – 08
Dropouts re enrolled – 28
Girls from Devadasi communities (both victims and vulnerable girls) are grouped into Kishori Clubs (Children’s Clubs) where the following activities are undertaken :
We come from a village called Sivapur in
Belagavi district. In this village, there were
no toilets and people used to defecate in
the open. This caused a lot of hygiene and health
related issues. As a Kishori group, we decided to address
this issue. In the next 15 days, the Government
began constructing public toilets.
