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Travel

Prostitutes of God

For the grand finale VBS travels to the annual full moon festival in Saundatti, the most prestigious event in the Devadasi calendar.

For the grand finale VBS travels to the annual full moon festival in Saundatti, the most prestigious event in the Devadasi calendar. The colour, dancing and celebrations of the festival disguise the darkness of its underlying purpose: child sex trafficking. Here traffickers, pimps and brothel madams come from all over India to recruit young girls and boys into the sex trade in the name of the Goddess Yellamma. On our way home, we are invited to a remote mud hut to meet two older Devadasi women a mother and daughter who reflect back on their lives and ask the question: what kind of religion turns parents into pimps and their children into prostitutes?