25-year-old woman saved from becoming jogini in Nizamabad

Hyderabad: Revenue and police officials stepped just in time to rescue a 25-year-old woman from being turned into a ‘jogini’ in Bodhan in Nizamabad. The officials not only saved the woman, but also helped her get marriage to a 27-year-old man from a nearby village on Friday.
The woman from Pegadapalli village in Bodhan mandal was facing pressure from her family to become a jogini owing to their financial condition.On learing about this, Bodhan tahsildar Mohammed Gaffar along with police officials shifted her to a safe home.
With a person from Pentakalan village agreeing to marry her, officials arranged the wedding. “Families on both sides came forward for the marriage and it was performed in the presence of revenue and police and local political leaders,” Gaffar told STOI on Saturday. The exchanging of garlands took place in the tahsildar’s office.
The woman had studied up to SSC and was working in a supermarket, the villager is a farmer.
It is learnt that local officials got wind of the intentions of the woman’s mother 10 days ago to turn her into a jogini. The mother and grandmother were joginis themselves.
Local officials, who were informed about some rituals taking place in a temple in Pegadapalli, immediately alerted senior officials about it.
“It appeared that the girl’s mother was more concerned about her 27-year-old physically challenged son and worried about his future. When we asked, she, however, denied any intentions of making her daughter a jogini,” the tahsildar said. The girl was kept in the care of ICDS officials for the last 10 days.
Under the rehabilitation process, the girl’s mother was given one-acre land. She also gets Rs 2,000 per month towards pension.
The government had banned the ‘jogini’ tradition in 1988 as under the garb of tradition, young women were being forced to become ‘joginis’, who were sexually exploited by villagers.