Her time as a devotee to the Hindu goddess Yellamma has also rendered her an outcast in the eyes of her community. Devadasis have been an integral part of southern Indian culture for centuries and once enjoyed a respectable place in society. Four decades after the state ban, there are still more than 70,000 devadasis in Karnataka, India's human rights commission wrote last year. 'Many women have died'Years of unsafe sex exposed many devadasis to sexually transmitted infections, including HIV. "Devadasi women are still looked down upon."
