To support a group of stigmatized women sex workers vulnerable to HIV, a rural prevention project reaches out to inform and empower their neighbors as well. Volume IV, No 1, July 1997 E very December, on the day after the full moon rises, an age-old ceremony takes place in Soundatti, a town in south India. At the famous shrine of the Hindu goddess Yellamma, people from all over the Belgaum region assemble to mark the traditional date of initiation for the devadasis, women who devote their lives to worship of the goddess and to maintaining her temples. Tradition has for centuries locked devadasis into a proscribed and highly stigmatized social role. Forbidden to marry or work outside the temple, they have spent their lives tending the shrines and decorating altars, singing and dancing, telling devotional stories and collecting coins from worshippers to support themselves and their religious work.
Historical records show that some also served the royal family as courtesans.
Over the years, the caste of women who were devadasis by profession were forced by social, legal and, most importantly, economic circumstances to resort to sex work as their source of income. Sivaram knows the devadasis and their plight well. Project's grant program for private voluntary organizations. But the project soon took on a much broader scope. It would only brand them further as outcasts and give the rest of the community the false impression that AIDS prevention isn't an issue for everyone.