The Tirumala temple

Hyderabad, Sept. 26: Sumalatha can let her hair down, finally. And, Tirumala’s Balaji temple can watch one of its last glass ceilings crack.

The 24-year-old is one of the 18 lady barbers who began work at Kalyana Katta, the temple’s tonsuring platform, joining the band of 600 men who shave around 30,000 heads daily and about six million a year.

“It is a hard-earned privilege for which we fought for over three years against hostile attitudes and opposition from male barbers,” said Kalpana, 30, another lady who has just made the mark along with Sumalatha.

Women who had themselves tonsured by lady barbers this morning were happy. “Thanks to the management. We can relax as barbers keep their eyes and hands to our heads only,” said Lavanya Mudigonda, an NRI.

According to Rangaswami Reddy, the tonsuring unit’s superintendent, the ladies will initially use their skills only on women and children.

“In times of heavy rush however, they will tonsure men, too,” he added.

Soon, more women will join Sumalatha and Kalpana as Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam gets ready to hire 100 in all.

However, lady barbers will be asked not to work during their menstrual periods. They will be on the job only in day-shifts or late-evening sessions ending at 8 pm. The work timings come with a dress code too: only saris and loose garments.

That might sound like freedom with too many strings attached, but few are complaining. The tonsure triumph didn’t come easy, after all.

The temple barbers’ union had stiffly opposed the entry of ladies. A committee of Agama experts in temple rituals appointed by the temple management had also shot down the idea.

Then, women’s associations, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association, brought their combined might to bear on the barber bastion. They slammed the panel’s decision as “anti-women and discriminatory”.

The battle won, the associations are happy. “This is not the first time that women have been employed in Lord Balaji’s service. Hundreds of ladypushers are already being recruited on a temporary basis to nudge devotees out of the sanctum sanctorum,” the All-India Women’s Association said.