High alert as Sabarimala opens to women today

new delhi — India deployed hundreds of police on Tuesday in Kerala where protesters have threatened to stop women from entering Sabarimala temple, despite a court ruling they can pray there.

India’s Supreme Court in September overturned a prohibition on women of menstruating age, between 10 and 50, from entering a temple for the deity Ayyappa.

Activists have said the longstanding ban reflected an old but still prevalent belief that menstruating women were impure.

The landmark ruling will take effect from Wednesday and for the first time allow all female pilgrims to enter the temple, considered one of the holiest for Hindus

and visited by millions of devotees each year. But tensions have escalated in Kerala ahead of the day, with thousands marching against the court’s decision and warning of bigger disruptions if

the temple’s traditions were not protected. Mobs stopped cars from approaching the temple on Tuesday to demand women of menstruating age turn back, reported the Press Trust of India.

Hundreds of additional police had been put on high alert across the state to protect devotees, authorities said.

“Things are under control, and we are closely monitoring the situation,” Kerala police spokesman Pramod Kumar said.

Women are permitted to enter most Hindu temples but female devotees are still barred from entry by some, despite intensifying campaigns by rights activists against the bans.

“It is our constitutional right, and we will stand up for it,” said Trupti Desai, an activist who planned to visit the Ayyappa temple despite receiving death threats.

“People are trying to bully me but I am not scared.” —