Women working as priests on religious occasions like marriage etc. is unheard and unseen of India. Not just in rural areas, but also in urban metros of the country.
However, one woman from Kolkata is reviving the centuries old tradition of women working as priests. Dr. Rohini Dharmapal from Kolkata says women have worked as priests since the ancient Vedic times and their are references of it in the Rig Veda. It was only in the recent few hundred years that people have completely forgotten about women priests.
"We are not officiating as priests only in Kolkata where urban upper middle class people might want to make a style statement... we also work in the suburbs and spread awareness about it so that more women can take this up as a profession," says Dr. Dharmapal
She hopes that in the next five years no one will address them as 'women priests' and that women working as priests will be normalised.
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