Sabarimala: Separate system for children to have smooth pilgrimage, says Travancore Devaswom Board

Maximum facilities for women, kids, differently-abled

Devaswom guards and police are on duty to prevent misuse of this system, TDB president PS Prashanth said.

“It helps them to avoid the situation of having to wait for a long time with children after climbing the mountain from Pampa,” he said.

“The Devaswom Board will strictly implement the government’s directive to provide maximum facilities for women, children, and differently-abled persons,” he added.

Recently, a video of a boy who had got lost in the crowd and was crying for his father was shared by right-wing social media influencers, who portrayed the incident as the boy being detained by the police and was being taken in a police van. The child was not inside a police van but a state RTC bus arranged for the devotees.

From the video, it is clear that the police were trying to help the child and he was reunited with his father.

Several others opined that if someone wanted to criticise the government, they should do it against the mismanagement of the crowd and not by peddling fake narratives.

Related: Busted: Fake social media narrative about the crying child pilgrim

Hardships of the devotees

Despite the Kerala government claiming the situation has been under control, devotees of Lord Ayyappa were facing many hardships, forcing the high court to intervene.

Reports said pilgrims to the hill shrine were made to wait in queues for hours — often even half a day — before they could proceed to the 18 gold-covered holy steps to the temple.

An unprecedented rush of devotees during the annual festival season this year has left both authorities on the ground and the pilgrims frustrated. The arrangements made in advance went for a toss as several pilgrims arrived without booking slots on the Virtual Q, an online system initiated to ensure a smooth pilgrimage.

Authorities tried the Tirupati-model crowd management, but failed as several pilgrims jumped the queue, and took forest routes to Sannidhanam.

Related: Tranquility becomes a mirage as inadequate facilities Sabarimala pilgrimage a painful affair

Increase in footfalls

According to Travancore Devaswom Board’s special secretary MG Rajamanickam, more than 1,20,000 pilgrims were trekking the hills daily during the current festival season that began on 1 December.

Three decades ago, hardly 10,000 pilgrims visited the shrine located in the Periyar Tiger Reserve in a day.

Though the government attempted to regulate the crowding at the forest shrine by limiting the Virtual Q booking from 90,000 to 80,000 a day, it failed to create any impact. Extending the temple hours by an hour, too, did not help much.

Pilgrims were now waiting for more than 12 hours to get the darshan at numerous locations between Pampa and Sannidhanam, where the temple is located.

Besides, the virtual booking facility, pilgrims could make spot bookings also. However, the high court on Wednesday, 13 December, directed the government to limit the spot booking to 10,000 people.

Besides, thousands reach the shrine through illegal forest routes.

TDB President S Prasanth told South First that the temple was now open for almost 17 hours daily. He said extending the operational hours further would be impractical as the priests and employees should have adequate rest.

Related: Crowds flock to the Sabarimala Temple as annual pilgrimage season begins

Wi-Fi facility

The TDB statement also said that free Wi-Fi service would be available at Sabarimala soon as part of providing the maximum possible facilities to devotees. It would be available to a devotee for a maximum of 30 minutes, it said.

“The aim of the Devaswom Board is to provide relief to the devotees who are unable to contact their homes and other places due to lack of network,” the statement said.

In the first phase of the project, there will be a total of 15 Wi-Fi hotspots, it said.

BSNL would be setting up the hotspots and has already launched free Wi-Fi service at the queue complexes, it added.

Huge crowds have been witnessed at the hilltop shrine after its portals opened for the annual Mandalam-Makaravilakku pilgrimage.

The 41-day pilgrimage season began on 17 November, the first day of the auspicious Malayalam month of Vrichikam.

Related: Kerala government issues directions to make pilgrimage safe for devotees

(With PTI inputs)