The sanctum sanctorum of Kerala temples are increasingly throwing open their doors to the socially marginalised sections, including Dalits.
A few members of the Scheduled Castes and Schedules Tribes and Other Backward Castes are likely to be appointed in temples under the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) and Cochin Devaswom Board (CDB) shortly.
The TDB has reported around 80 vacancies of priests in its temples in the second phase, whereas the CDB has reported around 70 vacancies. The TDB has also reported 29 vacancies of overseers and seven vacancies of assistant engineers.
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Early this month, history was created in the TDB when six youths belonging to the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Communities (OBC) were appointed as priests. Sixty-one priests were appointed from the rank list prepared by the Kerala Devaswom Recruitment Board (KDRB) in the first phase.
The exact number of postings members of the SC/ST and OBC communities may get depended on factors such as the representation the eligible communities had got earlier, said G.S. Shailamani, a member of the KDRB.
Even while following the statutory 32 per cent reservation in the appointments, factors such as rotation of castes for providing the benefits of reservation and backlog of eligible communities in getting the appointment would also be considered, she said.
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The request of the TDB for appointment of more priests was returned as the application was not submitted in the required format.
Once the requisition was resubmitted in the prescribed format, it would be processed and advice memos would be issued to eligible candidates from the rank list prepared earlier. This may take a week and appointment letters would be dispatched duly, she said.
In case of the appointment of part-time priests to the CDB, the KDRB would conduct written tests and interview for publishing the rank list. Here too, 32 per reservation for the eligible communities would be followed in appointment. The number of OBCs and SC/ST members that may land the job also depended on the performance of the candidates in the test and interview, she said.
The OBC representation in the TDB had gone up significantly during the first phase as 15 Ezhavas and one Dheevara candidate got appointment in merit list besides the ones who got the benefit of reservation. It was to be seen how the communities were performing in the upcoming test and interview, she said.
The TDB and CDB would decide on the placement of successful candidates based on the vacancies reported from the temples.