"No Place For Activism," Says Kerala As Sabarimala Opens Today | Read

As the Sabarimala shrine in Kerala opens today for the 41-day annual pilgrimage season, the Kerala government has said that the shrine is "no place for activism" and the activists hoping to make a statement by taking up the pilgrimage will not be given police protection. The state government is also non-committal about giving protection to women between the age of 10-50 years of age who were allowed to enter the shrine last year after the top court lifted the centuries-old ban on their entry. The Sabarimala shrine will open this evening at 5 pm two days after the Supreme Court referred the review petitions against its 2018 verdict to a seven-judge bench. Security has been heightened around the hill shrine with deployment of more than 10,000 cops in four phases.