Karnataka's 2025 Devadasi Bill ^{CEFR B2}

The Devadasi system began as a temple role for women who performed rituals, dance and music, but over centuries the system changed and many women lost traditional roles and suffered exploitation. Despite regional laws, the practice continued in parts of India, and the new Karnataka Bill seeks a different strategy.

The Karnataka Devadasi (Prevention, Prohibition, Relief and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2025, adopts a rights-based and participatory approach rather than focusing mainly on criminal prohibition. Drafters consulted more than 15,000 Devadasi women, activists and scholars and promote a "principle of conscientisation" to raise public awareness through campaigns and health and legal education. The Bill aims to restore dignity and agency and to provide legal identity, economic support and social inclusion.

Key provisions in the Bill include:

• Awareness work and education to change public attitudes and promote humanism and scientific temper.
• Legal identity for children: a child may apply to the taluk Committee to ascertain paternity; the District Court can order DNA testing and a father’s denial may be treated as a negative inference; the child is presumed legitimate and may inherit from both parents.
• Compensation and housing support with standards for hygiene, comfort and privacy, and concessions for lesser-benefited family members.
• Preferential reservation of agricultural land for dependents and support for cooperative farming to promote economic independence.

The Bill contrasts with earlier regional laws since the 1930s, such as the Bombay Devadasi Protection Act, 1934, and others up to the Maharashtra Devadasi Abolition Act, 2005, which did not end the practice. Reliable data on prevalence is contested: the National Commission for Women estimated 48,358 Devadasis in 2011; a 2015 Sampark Report to the ILO placed the figure at nearly 450,000; Karnataka surveys by KSWDC recorded 22,873 in 1993–94 and 23,787 in 2007–08, about 46,660 in the state.

Supporters say the Bill moves policy from prohibition to reform that supports identity, property, livelihood and self-determination. Manjula Malagi of Sakhi Trust and other advocates welcomed the Act as the result of long community advocacy.