As the number of women are falling in comparison to men among the servitors of 12th century Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri of Odisha, an effort has been initiated to incentivise birth of girl child. Srimandir Garabadu Nijog, a section among servitors has announced that if a girl is born in the community, the family will get Rs 10,000 on her first birthday as reward. Among Puri servitors, the sex-ratio is completely imbalanced as there are only 873 women per 1,000 men which is worse than state average. Odisha has a sex-ratio of 979 women per 1,000 men.
The servitors of Puri temple are traditionally providers of different services in the temple. They carry titles as per specific services. Their living style and tradition differ from other Hindu castes of the state. The servitors, locally known as Sevayats, have to marry among themselves and that too, from Puri town only. If a boy marries outside, he will be debarred from temple services. So, the inbreeding has been going on for centuries. The servitor population, reportedly, was 8,338 in 2005 and fell to 8,110 in 2013. Besides, sex-ratio is also falling.
There have been several surveys on servitors as they are responsible for the management of the state’s ruling deity, Lord Jagannath, who is worshiped along with his elder brother Lord Balabhadra and younger sister Goddess Subhdra in the sanctum sanctorum of the main temple. Besides the main temple, there are other temples in the premises. For the annual ritualistic rath yatra festival in which Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Goddess Subhadra go to their aunt’s abode Sri Gundicha Mandir in Puri in three massive wooden chariots dragged by thousands of pilgrims, the servitors play a key role and have to be kept in good humour by the state government through temple administration, which is headed by a senior IAS officer.
In 2013, Nabakrishna Choudhry Centre for Development Studies, Bhubaneswar, had made a survey on the socio-economic status of servitors. It had said, though the number of servitors working in temple has increased, their population has on the decline. Besides, the report had highlighted fall in sex-ratio. It had recommended to give incentives for birth of girl child among poor servitors. It had also suggested girl education. Though administration has not acted upon the report yet, the Garabadu Nijog has decided to give financial reward for birth of girl child.
But among the Garabadu section of servitors who supply water inside temple for all rituals, there are more girls in comparison to boys. Garabadus have 1,043 girls against 1,000 boys. But, among major groups of servitors like Rajguru, Pushpalak, Khuntia, Pratihari, Daitapati, Rosa kothabhog Pania, Dutta Mohapatra, Ghatuar, Bimanbadu, Pania Apat Pradhani, Chhatat Olar, Ghantua, Kotha suansua, Chunra, Lenka, Jogania Mekap, Behera Karan, Mahabhoi, Dalabehera and other sections of servitors there are fewer number of girls in comparison to boys.
According to Rajat Pratihari, secretary of Garabadu Nijog, their decision is applicable to Garabadu community only.
Rajkumar Mohanty, advocate and columnist, said,”Among servitors, girls are doing well in academics. The boys are engaged in temple activities and earn well, but as thousands of pilgrims come they do not give stress on education. On the other hand, because of restriction on marriage, an educated girl is forced to marry a less educated boy. Continuous marriage among themselves has created genetic problem. These are the flip sides of the age-old tradition.”