If everything goes according to plan, girls and young women in rural areas will be learning self-defence and other courses at their village temples. Members of the Karnataka Rajya Dharmika Parishath, who are meeting in Bengaluru on April 9, are expected to recommend to the state government that the temple premises should be used to teach karate, other self-defence and music classes to girls and women in rural parts.
The state has over 34,000 temples run by the Endowments Department, of which 175 are categorised as Class A (with an annual income of above Rs 25 lakh), 158 as Class B (annual income of Rs 5-25 lakh) and the rest as Class C (income of less than Rs 5 lakh). This apart, thousands of temples are run by private trusts, organisations and individuals.
Endowments Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said that sometime back, there was a proposal to introduce the same programme, ‘Devalayagalalli Atmasthairya’, for girls in villages. “But we could not go ahead because of Covid and lockdown. Now, the proposal has resurfaced. We will discuss it with officials and CM B S Yediyurappa, and take a final decision,” he added.
Department sources said, “To begin with, we will look at temples which are doing well financially. We may tie-up with NGOs to conduct classes, which will be held in the evenings so that regular classes of school and college-going youngsters are not disturbed. Finances are low with the government, and we may approach private companies for their corporate social responsibility funds or any NGO to run the programme.”They said that they will invoke the village deity to convince elders in the family to send womenfolk for training programmes.