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Women’s entry to temples

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October 20, 2017

What is the issue?

Preventing women’s entry to the Sabarimala temple clearly offends the equality clauses in the Constitution.

What is the prohibition?

  • The very purpose of the Kerala Hindu Places of Public Worship (Authorisation of Entry) Act, 1965 is to ensure entry of all Hindus to temples without being discriminatory.
  • Rule 3(b), which instigates obstruction to women’s entry on the ground of menstruation, apparently runs counter to the very object of the parent enactment and is therefore untenable.
  • Travancore devasthanam board bars women aged between 10 and 50 that is those who are in menstruating age from entering the Sabarimala temple.
  • While there is no restriction on women to worship Lord Ayyappa in any other temple, their entry is prohibited only in this temple.
  • It denotes a patriarchal and partisan approach.

How is this against the constitution?

  • The entry prohibition takes away the woman’s right against discrimination guaranteed under Article 15(1) of the Constitution.
  • It curtails her religious freedom assured by Article 25(1).
  • Prohibition of women’s entry to the shrine solely on the basis of womanhood and the biological features associated with womanhood is derogatory to women, which Article 51A(e) aims to renounce.
  • The managerial rights of religious authorities under Article 26(b) cannot override the individual woman’s religious freedom guaranteed under Article 25(1).

 

Source: The Hindu

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