Karnataka’s new Devadasi Bill ushers an era of legal precarity for the gender diverse Jogappa community

THE RECENTLY APPROVED Karnataka Devadasi (Prevention, Prohibition, Relief and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2025, escalated the fight against Devadasi dedications. Its stated intention is to provide recognition, justice, rehabilitation and institutional support for the generationally exploited Devadasis and their children. 

The Bill must be commended for its progressive aspect. However, its broad prohibitions and definitional sweep create potential legal precarity for the Jogappas, a prominent gender-diverse community in Karnataka. The Jogappa community, largely concentrated in Northern Karnataka, occupies a unique cultural and spiritual position. They are individuals assigned male at birth who undergo gender transition through complex rituals culminating in dedication to a localised deity, Yellamma. Their dedication to Yellamma is a personal choice often approved by family. Jogappas’ gender transition characteristically proscribes ritual castration or sexual reaffirmation surgeries. 

Instead, they assert themselves as the chosen daughters of Yellamma, emphasising a spiritual gender embodiment rather than physical alteration. Hence, their identity embodies a complex negotiation of spirituality and gender variance. This upends the neat binaries of male-female, conformity-deviance that welfarist legislative-juridical reforms tend to recognise. 

Jogappas and the socio-cultural complexity of dedication

The language of the Bill, in its current form, criminalises dedication and related cultural practices. Though these practices are undoubtedly exploitative to Devadasis, some (like dedication to Yellamma and tying the mutthu) are intrinsic to Jogappa identity and their embodied gender expression. 

Socio-anthropologists and inclusive platforms have consistently argued that severing the Jogappa community from their ritual practices essentially takes away their assertion of identity and way of life.  While gender non-conforming practices are widely stigmatised, the Jogappa ritual practices also ensure community belonging and social continuity. Their community, organised around dedication to Yellamma, offers a framework of self-formulation embedded in collective solidarity and belonging. Therefore, it is crucial to understand the significance of the Jogappa community system that has historically provided a space for recognising gender-diverse expressions. 

Consequently, the broad prohibitions of the Bill, collapsing all acts of dedication as a singular exploitative practice unless specifically marked, risk criminalising the Jogappa tradition. The punishments prescribed ‘not be less than two years but may extend to a period of five years and shall be liable to fine of not less than rupees one lakh’ (clause 44) transform a mode of cultural survival and gender-expression into a criminal offence for the Jogappa community.