14.1.2 Social evils and reform: vetti, jogini and devadasi customs, child marriage and their abolition

Explained

1. Forced labour: vetti, begar and bhagela

• Vetti in the Nizam period:
  • one member of every Dalit family had to do unpaid work in the village;
  • service castes (washermen, barbers, potters, carpenters, blacksmiths), Boyas and Bestas carried palanquins and loads; toddy tappers gave free toddy;
  • officials of the police, revenue, forest and excise departments on tour had to be served free.
• Begar: forced labour on government work.
• Bhagela: a landless labourer took a loan and worked for the creditor until it was repaid; interest kept it unpaid, and wife and children could be bound too. Books place it mainly in the old Nalgonda and Warangal districts.
• Orders on paper: the Nizam's government issued orders against begar and vetti and a regulation on bhagela agreements (books date them 1911–1935). They were not enforced.
• Who fought it:
  • Andhra Mahasabha resolutions from Jogipet (1930); again at Nizamabad (1937) (books).
  • The peasant armed struggle (1946–51) broke vetti in practice; it began against the Visunur deshmukh, Ramachandra Reddy (TGH-EN-02).
  • Literature: Vattikota Alwar Swamy (Prajala Manishi, Gangu), Dasarathi Rangacharya (Chillara Devullu).
• Law today: Article 23 and the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976, which frees bonded labourers, cancels their bonded debts and makes bondage a crime. District Vigilance Committees under the Collector watch for it.

2. Jogini, Mathamma, Basavi: dedication of girls

• How it happened:
  • A family, often after illness, drought or a vow, "gave" a young girl to the goddess.
  • A ceremony at the shrine, with a mangalsutra or bead necklace (the Act names the tying of a tali), marked her as married to the deity.
  • After puberty she was not allowed to marry. A landlord or richer villager would claim her first, and she was then open to sexual use by others; later many were pushed into prostitution in cities.
  • She danced and sang in jataras and Bonalu, and was called to bless or "foretell" in village rituals.
  • Her children had no father's name and carried the stigma.
• Who: mostly Dalit (Madiga and Mala) and some backward-caste girls. It is a form of caste and gender exploitation in the name of religion.
• Where (reported): old Nizamabad, Mahbubnagar, Medak, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Warangal and Rangareddy districts.

3. Devadasi: the temple tradition

• Devadasi ("servant of god") was the older pan-Indian custom of women dedicated to big temples, trained in music and dance, and patronised by courts. In the Telugu lands the dancing communities included the Kalavantulu, Bogam, Sani and Nagavasulu (named in the 1988 Act).
• Over time patronage became concubinage, and reformers treated devadasi and jogini as one evil.
• The 1988 Act covers both: its definition of "devadasi" includes Basavi, Jogini, Parvathi, Mathamma and Thyamma.

4. The 1988 Act: what it says

• It got the President's assent on 25 March 1988.
• Telangana continued it after 2014 through an adaptation order (G.O. Ms. No. 14, Scheduled Castes Development Department, 28 April 2016, under section 101 of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014); in Telangana it is titled the Telangana Devadasis (Prohibition of Dedication) Act, 1988.

5. Laws on dedication in other states

6. Reformers and campaigns against dedication

• Commission's findings (as reported): about 80,000 joginis in undivided AP, about 50,000 of them in Telangana. Among its rehabilitation proposals were about two acres of fertile land (with water and power) for each woman and a 2% quota in government jobs. Activists say these have not been carried out.
• NHRC (October 2022): issued notices to the Centre and six states, including Telangana, on the continuing devadasi system.

7. Child marriage

• Causes then and now: poverty, the dowry rising with the girl's age, fear for girls' safety, and custom.
• Laws:
  • Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 (Sarda Act): restrained, but did not void, child marriages.
  • Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006 (in force 1 November 2007): minimum age 18 (women), 21 (men); a child marriage is voidable at the option of the party who was a child; Child Marriage Prohibition Officers can stop one; adults who perform or promote it are punished.
• Telangana data: NFHS-5 (2019–21) 23.5% of women aged 20–24 married before 18, close to the national 23.3%; NFHS-4 (2015–16) 26.2%.
• Support:
  • Kalyana Lakshmi (SC, ST, BC, EBC) and Shaadi Mubarak (minorities), launched in October 2014 with Rs 51,000, raised to Rs 75,116 and then to Rs 1,00,116 (the current amount, 2026), paid toward the marriage of a girl aged 18 or above.
  • Childline 1098 and district child protection units step in to stop child marriages.

8. Dowry, bride price and other customs

• Kanyashulkam (bride price, paid to the bride's family) was old; dowry (to the groom's family) spread and became strong among landed castes.
• Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961; dowry death is now section 80 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (was IPC 304B).
• Widowhood: upper-caste child widows could not remarry; the Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856 applied in British India, and reformers in Hyderabad pressed for it.
• Purdah: came with Muslim rule (Qutb Shahi period) and was kept by noble Hindu families too.
• Tawaifs: court singers and dancers kept by nobles; the Nizams had an office for them (TGH-AJ-03).
• Untouchability: separate wells, temple bans and the two-tumbler system in tea shops. Article 17; the Untouchability (Offences) Act, 1955, renamed the Protection of Civil Rights Act in 1976; the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
• Manual scavenging: banned by the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.