Kerala Govt’s List of Women Who Entered Sabarimala Includes 3 Men

The government had issued a list of 51 women between the age of 10-50, who they claimed had entered the shrine.

The Kerala government had issued a list of women between the ages of 10 and 50 who have entered the Sabarimala temple.

(Photo: PTI)

Some glaring discrepancies were found in the list issued by the Kerala government on Friday, 18 January, mentioning the names of women aged between 10-50, who have entered the Sabarimala temple since the Supreme Court's verdict allowing women of menstruating age to worship at the shrine. Three of the names mentioned in the list were those of men.

The list claims that 51 women have entered the shrine since the SC’s order, but on cross-checking, it has been found that some of the women mentioned in the list are actually above the age of 50.

Moreover, Paranjothi, who has also been named in the list, is actually a man.

Men’s Names Included in List

Paranjothi is a 47-year old man, The Quint found out upon taking a look at his Aadhaar card.

“I went on 28 November and worshipped on 29 November. I am a gent. Even in my group there were 16 men, no women (sic),” said Paranjothi.

Two other names mentioned in the list – those of Deivasigamani Pandurangan and Kalavathi – also turned out to be of men, reported The News Minute. One of them had by mistake clicked the ‘female’ option while registering for their visit online.

"Deivasigamani is a male; not a female. I erroneously clicked the 'female' option when I was booking the ticket for him," his friend Balaji told The News Minute.

Some Women Above 50 Years of Age

Upon checking some of the contact numbers on the list, it was found that they didn’t match the names they were written against, and belonged to other devotees.

The number mentioned with 49-year-old Gowri Arumugam’s name belonged to one Rajesh, a resident of Bengaluru.

“I am distressed by so many calls. I am not Gowri. I was part of a 22-member group that booked online for the darshan. We had darshan on 20 December. There were four women in the group and they were all above 50 years,” Rajesh told Deccan Chronicle.

Chandira from Tamil Nadu has been mentioned in the list as a 48-year-old. However, upon checking her voter ID card, it was verified that she was born in 1956, making her 63 years old, reported NDTV.

“The Aadhaar card shows her birth year as 1970. But that is wrong,” a relative of hers told NDTV.

Many numbers on the list were those of men who had registered for darshan online on behalf of women devotees.

While the authorities claim that the errors could be because people had given such information online, many say it was vital for them to cross-check details before submitting it to the Supreme Court.

No Verification Led to Errors?

Several others feel it was not right for the list to have been leaked as they have been harassed by media persons on the phone. Some claimed that they had journalists coming to their homes as well.

Kerala Minister Kadakampally Surendran had said over 7,500 women below 50 seeking darshan at Sabarimala had registered online, the NDTV report added.

State BJP President PS Sreedharan Pillai said the Kerala government’s list is the “biggest lie,” added the report.