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A University of Manitoba-led consortium tackles AIDS and sex workers' issues in India
Temple prostitutes are one part of a tragic story of gender discrirnination, poverty, sexual abuse and denial that has contributed to an HTV epidemic in India where an estimated four million people are infected with the virus.
Now a consortium led by the University of Manitoba has been selected by the Canadian International Development Agency to design and implement the IndiaCanada Collaborative HIV/AIDS Project (ICHAP), a $12.5-million, five-year initiative. "Historical evidence suggests temple prostitutes or devadasi were dedicated to the goddess Yalluma and recruited from very poor famines to provide sexual services to priests and male travellers who made donations to temples," says Dr. John O'Neil (PhD), an anthropologist with the University of Manitoba.
Nowadays, Dr. O'Neil says, "the devadasi tradition continues in rural areas . . . but now it is done in exchange for a significant fee from wealthy landowners or other men...