India's Devadasi System

Shobha Somappa Tarvgol, 18, sits in her one-roomed home in Modhur, India. Shobha became a Devadasi sex worker because there are no men in her family and she had little other means of supporting her sister, sick mother and grandmother. She was recently rescued from a brothel in Mumbai by the Rescue Foundation. After spending one year at the rescue foundation, she was returned to her village where she now works as a laborer for $1/day. While she did not like working as a prostitute, she is...
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Shobha Somappa Tarvgol, 18, sits in her one-roomed home in Modhur, India. Shobha became a Devadasi sex worker because there are no men in her family and she had little other means of supporting her sister, sick mother and grandmother. She was recently rescued from a brothel in Mumbai by the Rescue Foundation. After spending one year at the rescue foundation, she was returned to her village where she now works as a laborer for $1/day. While she did not like working as a prostitute, she is desperately unhappy with how little she earns as a laborer and given the choice, says she's return to her old life if she could.
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