AHMEDNAGAR: After a heavy campaigning by activists, the Shani Shingnapur temple trust finally relented to allowing women enter the sanctum sanctorum, in a landmark decision this week. Lifting all gender barriers for access to the core area, the 400 year old tradition was broken on the occasion of 'Gudi Padwa'.
Trustee of the temple, Sayaram Bankar, said the trustees held a meeting and decided to facilitate unrestricted entry to all devotees, including men and women, in keeping with the Bombay High Court directive. “The trust at the meeting, decided there will not by any discrimination and today all parts of Shani temple are open to all.”
The High Court held on April 1 that it is the women’s fundamental right to go into places of worship and the government is duty-bound to protect it. The debate over the issue escalated after a woman, in 2015, tried to enter and offer prayers at the Shani Shingnapur temple, breaching the age-old practice of prohibiting entry of women. The agitation for women’s entry gained momentum over the last few months, even as the temple authorities barred men also from entering the sanctum sanctorum. Trupti Desai, leader of Bhoomata Brigade that spearheaded the campaign, welcomed the decision of Shani Shingnapur temple trustees to open gates of the sacred “Chauthara” for men and women devotees, and said it was a “wise” step on their part.
Desai said she hoped that the trustees at the Trimbakeshwar and Mahalaxmi temples in Nashik and Kolhapur too would take similar decision to end injustice against women devotees.
