Kottayam: As Thiruvananthapuram decks up for Attukal Pongala, recorded as the largest gathering of women in the world, DGP prisons and correctional services, R Sreelekha has taken to her personal blog to flag an abusive ritual in the temple.
The ritual called 'Kuthiyottam', she has said, is an act of 'physical and mental abuse' of young boys and has been spared from scrutiny, both by the believers and atheists.
The allegedly invasive, torturous practice, observed for five days before the 'Pongala', has remained unchecked by the public and unreported by the media.
The practice which Sreelekha calls a 'torture', involves around 1000 odd-boys between the ages of five and twelve being kept inside the temple premises, most often without their explicit consent to the torture that awaits them.
Elaborating on the ritual, she says that the children are separated from their parents, allowed to wear nothing more than a loin cloth, forced to eat measly morsels and sleep on the bare floor.
The most worrisome is the culmination of the ritual, which will supposedly 'tie the children to the Goddess' and help them grow into diligent young boys/men.
The children, decked up in ornaments and colorful clothes, are forcibly pierced with iron hooks with a small thread attached to it (the thread is the knot with divinity).
Sreelekha, who admits to her devotion to the goddess, has expressed her dismay at the practice which she says is punishable under sections 89, 319, 320, 349, 350, 351 of the Indian Penal Code, the juvenile justice act and the child welfare commission act.
The IPS officer, who recounts her numerous 'pongalas', has wound up the blog saying that she wouldn't be offering the boiling pot-full of devotion this year, unless there is a 'divine intervention' that will stop the hapless children from being tortured in the name of religion.
Temple responds
However, the temple authorities rejected the charges and said no one is being forced by the shrine to participate in the ritual.
"We are not forcing anybody and it is only a ritual. It is unbecoming of a DGP rank officer to come out with a misleading statement especially at a time when the annual festival is on," V Chandrasekhara Pillai, chairman, Attukal Bhagawathy Temple Trust, told PTI.
He also said there is a High Court directive that none should interfere in the temple's rituals and customs.
One of the world's largest all-woman religious events, Attukal Pongala witnesses congregation of lakhs of women to the city preparing the offering to the Goddess on the streets. The annual festival will be held on March 2.