Hyderabad: Women devotees assemble for worship for 10 min at Chilkur

Chilkur: For 10 minutes, it was all women and girls gathered near 'Dhwajasthambham' and the men were briefed about the respect we ought to offer to women. It was a great way of reiterating Chilkur Balaji Temple's commitment to restore the status of women in the society on the account of International Women's Day.

The Hereditary Priest Rangarajan had reminded the devotees how in the past an ancient forgotten tradition became a means for spreading awareness on respecting and caring for girl children.

The way Chilkur Balaji temple had organised 'Kanya Vandhanam' at a government school in 2018. About 108 girl students of class I were part of the programme in Manikonda which involved offering them new clothes and bangles.

While the priests chanted the name of goddess Mahalakshmi 108 times, the students were applied turmeric and made to perform certain rituals. According to Rangarajan, all events like Raksha Bandhan, Kanyavandanam, Jatayu Sena where each male member would commit to protecting women from adverse situations were all devised for this special goal.