Trupti Desai has reached Kochi Airport, but then so far has not been able to leave the airport. She had come in all geared up to go Sabarimala tomorrow, but then protestors have been so defiant that she has not been able to leave the airport for the past one a half hours.
Police have found themselves in a tough spot and it will be interesting to see how this issue is solved. Before that let’s know more about Trupti Desai.
Trupthi Desai is an Indian gender equality activist and the founder of the Bhumata Brigade, a Pune-based social activist organization. She and the brigade have campaigned to get an entry for women to religious places like the Shani Shingnapur Temple, the Haji Ali Dargah, the Mahalakshmi Temple and the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple in India.
Her father left the family for an ashram and she was raised with her two siblings by her mother.
Religious places she tried to enter before Sabarimala:
In November 2015, a woman entered the Hindu shrine, where women were not allowed. The priests of the temple suspended the security guard on duty at the time and carried out a cleansing ceremony of the idol. This event of discrimination towards women agitated Desai, who along with other members of her Brigade staged various forced entries into the shrine. The State Government and the district level court of Pune directed the temple officials to allow women in the shrine based on their constitutional rights. On 8 April 2016, the day celebrated as Gudi Padwa—the new year day of the Maharashtrian calendar—Desai along with other female members of the Brigade entered the shrine of Shani Shingnapur Temple.
Post Shingnapur entry, Desai reached to the Mahalakshmi Temple in Kolhapur where the temple management committee allowed her entry but the priests became violent against her. Five priests were arrested for attacking Desai and the protestors. She also entered the inner sanctum of the Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple near Nashik where she was peacefully escorted by the police, but only with wet clothes similar to how the temple allows men.
In April 2016, she made an attempt to enter the Haji Ali Dargah in Mumbai; however, an angry mob made it unsuccessful. Desai claimed that she received a death threat if she again tried to enter the dargah—a type of Islamic shrine. On 12 May 2016, she made a successful second attempt and entered the mosque under tight security but not in the inner sanctum where women are not allowed.
She also plans to visit the Sabarimala temple in Kerala during the upcoming Mandalam-Makaravilakk pilgrim season which will begin on 17 November 2018. The temple had legal restrictions that prevented the entry of women of menstruating age(approx. 10-50 years) since the temple was consecrated which was overturned through a historic verdict by the Supreme Court of India in October 2018.
Truptu is at Kochi airport Visit Even though six women of menstruating age group had made attempts to visit the temple after the verdict came, all of them proved unsuccessful largely due to protests and mob violence.
Desai is married and has one son.
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