A raging controversy surrounding the Sabarimala Temple is taking social media by storm.
Travancore Devaswom Board President, Prayar Gopalakrishnan, who is the centre of this controversy, started it all by saying that women will be allowed to enter the famous Sabarimala Temple only when ‘a machine is invented to scan if it is the right time for a women to enter the temple.’
Gopalakrishnan, the Devaswom Board President said, “Now there are machines which can scan bodies and check for weapons. There will be a day when machine is invented to scan if it is the right time for a woman to enter the temple. When that machine is invented, we will talk about letting women inside.”
The Sabarimala shrine in Kerala attracts hundreds of devotes from across the country in the pilgrimage seasons. However, the temple doesn’t allow the entry of women in the menstrual age group.
Earlier, this month, the temple authorities had said that women can be allowed in the temple once a machine that scans menstruating women ‘just like the ones that check for weapons’ is invented.
The statements from the authorities have earned the ire of many women across the country and even abroad. To protest, they have started a campaign called ‘Happy to Bleed’. The campaign encourages women to ‘’to hold placards/sanitary napkins/charts saying Happy To Bleed’, and to click and post their pictures doping so on their profiles or the campaign page.
This, they campaigners believe, is “to oppose the shame game played by patriarchal society since ages.” Men have also joined hands with women in solidarity with the ‘Happy to bleed campaign’.
