Security of women who visited Sabarimala at risk

The controversy over the list of 51 women, in the age group of 10-50 years, who were said to have visited the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple has come as an embarrassment to the Left government in Kerala.

But for those in the list, their safety has been put to risk.

Even now, the two women who entered the temple on January 2— Bindhu A and Kanaka Durga— are unable to move about freely.

Because of the threats from various outfits and from some of their family members, the situation is such that the two aren't able to visit their houses, too, even though the top court had directed police to provide security to the two women.

Taking this into account, the safety of the women named in the list could be at a risk.

Their details including address and phone number were leaked out.

When DH tried to contact a couple of women who are in the list, the latter were prepared with explanations.

While some said that their age was wrongly entered and they were aged above 50, others said that their age is close to 50 but they had undergone surgical procedures to stop menstruating.

One of the women requested that she may be spared from the controversy.

A senior police officer said that it was not at all fair by whoever that made the list public.

The details were taken from the data available in the Kerala police’s Sabarimala virtual queue system.

Out of fear, none of the women have dared to admit that they were below the age of 50 and had visited the temple with the exception of a Tamil Nadu native.

The women had openly admitted that she was 48 and had visited the temple.

Meanwhile, Kerala government is on the defensive as it was revealed that three names among the list of 51 were of men.

The government is facing severe criticism of trying to mislead the apex court by presenting false information.

It has now directed the police to submit a revised, fool proof list after verifying each case.

The majority of the list names people from Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana and also lists one each belonging to Karnataka, Goa and Puducherry.

Police sources maintained that the goof up in the list was not deliberate.

The personal details, including gender, were entered by applicants while registering themselves in the virtual queue system.

The list was computer generated.

Now, a fresh list would be prepared by verifying the identity cards like Aadhaar and Election identity card provided by the individuals.