Ramaswami: Devadasi literally means God’s (Dev) female servant (Dasi), where according to the ancient Indian practice, young pre-pubertal girls are ‘married off’, ‘given away’ in matrimony to God or Local religious deity of the temple. She serves or rather sexually satisfies the priests and inmates of the temple, and the Zamindars (local land lords) and other men of money and power, in the village or town. For her service to them is akin service to God. There are more than 450,000 Devadasies trapped in this form of prostitution, deified and glorified by the heinous religious sanctions. The girls are enslaved here in the name of tradition and godliness.