India is seeing an alarming surge in COVID-19 positive cases even as there is an easing of lockdown restrictions. Most governments have opened markets and shopping malls. People are also being allowed to go to religious places. Now you can also travel by flight and train from one place to another. This makes it next to impossible to keep track of spread of the virus. Moreover, it is also difficult to ensure containment procedures when there is a free movement of people from one place to another. Another cause of concern is the crowd that congregates in religious places. More often than not, social distancing is all but forgotten in such places. Many people today are concerned about these things. In view of all these developments, the Sabrimala temple custodians have now decided not to open their doors for devotees during their monthly rituals and also cancelled their annual festival.
Sabrimala devotees not allowed for monthly rituals
The custodian of the famed Sabarimala temple — Travancore Devasom Board (TDB), the temple tantri along with Kerala Devasom Minister Kadakampally Surendran have decided not to allow devotees for the monthly rituals and cancelled this year’s annual festival. The decision came following matters raised by the ‘tantri’, who has the final say on all tantric and ritualistic procedures. Last week, it was decided to open Sabarimala temple based on the guidelines of the Centre. The TDB had also gone ahead and put in place the virtual-Queue, which has been used in the temple for a few seasons now. However, when the number of coronavirus positive cases started to increase in the state in a second spurt, the temple tantri, two days back wrote to the TDB expressing his concern that things might not be good, if Sabarimala threw open its doors to devotees, even in a controlled manner.
Spike in cases behind decision
This decision was taken in view of the sudden spike in cases. Total positive cases had come down as low as 16. But then in the past two weeks it again started to increase. This was a cause of concern and that is why the decision was taken not to open the temple for devotees. There are now over 2,000 cases in Kerala. Now the opening of the Lord Ayyappa shrine for its monthly rituals starting June 14 at 5 p.m. will be an inhouse affair till it closes on June 19 at 10 p.m.
Social distancing impossible in religious places
As we all know, you need to practice social distancing if you want to keep the COVID-19 infection at bay. But in religious places, this is almost next to impossible to maintain. How do you maintain a distance of 6 feet from the next devotee in a place that has hundreds of visitors? Moreover, it will also be impossible to keep track of people with symptoms and make sure that everyone follows the precautionary guidelines. Washing of hands, use of sanitisers may not always work in crowded places where you are rubbing shoulders with the next person.
(With inputs from IANS)