Woman barbers to wield holy scissors at Tirumala

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Woman barbers to wield holy scissors

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ FRIDAY, APRIL 01, 2005 01:48:07 AM ]

 

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TIRUPATI: Women have broken yet another glass ceiling. The long-awaited issue of

recruiting woman barbers at Kalyanakatta--the enclosure where people get

themselves tonsured--at Tirumala was resolved on Thursday when the TTD board

gave its green signal to the proposal.

 

The proposal to recruit woman barbers was initiated in 2001 when P Krishnaiah

was the TTD executive officer. But since then, the issue has been hanging fire.

Ex officio board member B Karunakar Reddy said the board would now analyse the

flow of woman devotees visiting Tirumala and recruit barbers accordingly.

In recent times, the district chief of the Nayee Brahmin Sangh, Radha Devi,

Tirupati member Inugonda Aravinda have been making a hue and cry over the issue

and threatened to launch protests if the TTD failed to give its assent to these

recruitments.

With the board giving the green signal, they said they were pleased that their

struggle had borne fruit. Inugonda Subramanyam, state president and founding

father of the Nayee Brahmin Sangham, thanked the TTD for its decision.

He said recruitment of woman barbers would minimise corruption at Kalyanakatta

and woman devotees would feel comfortable having their heads tonsured.