The Hindu Business Line : A window of opportunity

Around 100 women from Andhra Pradesh (AP) will break away from tradition in the Tirumala Tirupati Balaji temple, — one of India's most conservative (and perhaps richest) temples, when they start tonsuring women devotees end of this month.

The women barbers will sit in the kalyanakatta, an enclosure inside the temple where tonsuring is done, wielding razors to help women devotees offering their hair at the temple. The temple located on a hill at Tirumala, Chittor district, attracts pilgrims from across the world who routinely stand in serpentine queues for long hours to get a glimpse of the deity.

Each day, countless devotees tonsure their head to either fulfil a vow or make a new one. This tradition has even led to a booming business in hair export for wigs. Women devotees — who number about 4,000 out of the 50,000 visitors every day — had long been demanding the services of female barbers.

There are about 400 male barbers appointed by the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) board, which runs the temple. While some women expressed discomfort sitting close to a male barber, others complained of misbehaviour.

"After hearing such complaints, I thought why not have women barbers. After all, women are in every field today," says K. Radha Devi, President of the Rashtra Mahila Kshuraka Sangham (RMKS) or AP Women Tonsurers' Association. The proposal was first made by TTD Executive Officer P. Krishnaiah in 2001, but was put on the back burner amidst objections.

But Radha Devi, 33, saw in the proposal an opportunity for employment of many women in the Nayee Brahmin (new brahmin) caste, the barber community, which says that as it is involved in the `purification process' of shaving off hair, its role is similar to that of Brahmins. The community is largely poor with little or no land holdings.

Despite meeting the chief ministers of two successive governments, things moved only after RMKS members met Minister for Endowments M. Satyanarayana Rao in December 2004. They requested that women barbers be allowed in the kalyanakatta. On March 31, the TTD board decided to recruit about 100 female barbers.

They need this job...

Radha, who runs a beauty parlour in nearby Punganur village for the last 11 years, trained 200 women in the art of tonsuring. "There's nothing to it," she laughs, "I can finish a tonsure in 15-20 minutes."

In fact, Radha and other RMKS women were at work during a recent temple festival, where at least 30 women used their services. "Initially, the women were worried we may not have the expertise and might end up hurting them. We even paid some volunteers Rs 10-20 for a demonstration," says Shobha Rani, an agricultural labourer and mother of two, who is the prime breadwinner as her husband is an alcoholic. Shobha says she badly needs the Tirupati temple job.

Jyoti M., an agricultural labourer who earns about Rs 2,000 a month, is often without work. With an alcoholic husband, she finds it difficult to makes ends meet for her family, which includes her young daughter.

Jyoti hopes her recent training in the art of tonsuring will change all that.

The women barbers will be given a two-year contract, with a starting salary of Rs 3,000 per month. In comparison, their male counterpart earn Rs 7,000-10,000 per month and are entitled to free accommodation, free food cooked at the temple, and a bus pass to travel to the temple.

The TTD board's decision to appoint women barbers has led to a deluge of applications — around 2,000 for just 100 jobs — from even women living in far-off Srikakulam district.

Many of the applicants run beauty parlours in the villages surrounding Tirupati. The 45-member RMKS, however, feels that women from the Nayee Brahmin community should get preference because many of them are very poor and suffer at the hands of alcoholic husbands.

Fighting objections

Of course, some religious leaders are still trying to stall this move. Sri Swaroopanandendra Saraswathi of the Visakha Sri Sarada Peetham in Visakhapatnam, argues that women are considered representatives of goddess Lakshmi and, therefore, should not take up the job of tonsuring, which is identified with daridra (poverty). "Those who have problems offer their hair in the hope that they can get rid of their troubles. How can the temple administration involve a woman in this kind of job?" he says.

Radha has threatened to launch an agitation if his comments are taken seriously. "Is it okay for spiritual men to board aeroplanes and travel in air-conditioned cars? Which dharma prevents women from tonsuring for their livelihood," she asks.

Some conservative folk, quoting Hindu texts, also talk about women being impure. But Karunakar Reddy, TTD member, says, "For one thing, tonsuring would not be done inside the sanctum sanctorum. Besides, we have many women volunteers working inside the temple and there has been no objection to that!"

He says that the TTD has adopted many modern practices, including online tickets for darshan. He concedes that controversies have delayed the appointment of the women barbers. "These are just procedural delays. Women barbers will be appointed in pursuance of the board's decision by May-end."

Women's Feature Service

Picture by Shaju John

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