Bindu Ammini

Some Lesser Known Facts About Bindu Ammini

• Bindu Ammini is a social activist, a lawyer and a self-proclaimed feminist from Kerala, India. She entered the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in 2019 where the entry of women between the age of 10 to 50 during mensurating age is banned. Upon entering this temple, she became the first woman out of the who entered the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. Women in their reproductive age are not allowed to enter the temple by The Supreme Court of India (SCI) in 2018.

• Bindu Ammini began working as a teacher at Calicut University soon after completing her law studies. During the same time, she also stated her practising as a lawyer in the Koyilandi court. She left her teaching job in the meanwhile and joined as an Assistant professor at the Thalassery campus of Kannur University in the School of Legal Studies.

• Bindu Ammini and her husband, Hariharan, also runs a grocery shop in Kerala after their teaching hours. Bindu is also a leader of the Bhim Army that was started by Chandrasekhar Azad.

• In 2018, Bindu Ammini joined several Facebook groups after the verdict of the Supreme Court of India that Indian women are allowed to enter the Sabarimala temple. In one of the social media groups named Navothana Keralam Sabarimalayilekku (Renaissance Kerala), she met Kanakadurga, another woman who agreed to visit the Sabarimala temple with Bindu Ammini on 2 January 2019.

  

• On 22 December 2018, Bindu and Kanakadurga, along with two other women firstly met on a Facebook page gathered at Thrissur and headed to enter the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple. After two days, the two other women refused to accompany Bindu and Kanakadurga to the temple. Bindu and Kanakadurga were stopped by the male protesters on their way to the temple, and they missed the visit to the shrine. Soon after the incident, Bindu demanded police protection and went on a hunger strike.

  

• Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga successfully entered the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple in their second attempt at around 3:45 am on 2 January 2019. In the company of police personnel, they hurriedly ran towards the temple in black clothes. The videos of their entrance into the temple went viral soon after the incident on various social media platforms. Some messages with a video opposed her action while some were seen supporting her. Later, the chief minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, confirmed publically that Bindu Ammini and Kanakadurga had entered the temple with the police security. The priests of the Sabarimala Ayyappa temple announced to close the temple for purification rituals and ceremonies soon after the entrance of two women in the temple. After the incident, Bindu was forced to hide, and she was also given police protection. ^[5]BBC

  

• Shortly afterwards, the people of the Sabarimala Karma Samiti surrounded her house and several other organisations also protested outside her house for her unlawful entry into the temple. She said in an interview in February 2019 that she was receiving death threats. ^[6]New York Times In the same conversation, she said that she believed in the rights of the backward class women that were oppressed by the patriarchy and related her views with that of subaltern feminism. She revealed her intuitions and said that the attacks on her were politically motivated. ^[7]New York Times She said,
  

  We were not trying to start trouble,” and “Our goal was only to visit the temple. For the next generation of women, this is motivation.”

• The members of the Bharatiya Janata Party declared it a Black day when Bindu and Kanakadurga entered the temple. However, the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan, supported the decision of the Supreme Court and called it a historic moment. ^[8]BBC

  

• In November 2019, the Supreme Court of India handed over the case of entering the women in the Sabarimala temple to the higher bench. The Kerala government also withdrew their protection protocols from Bindu until the final verdict of the case. After the order of the Supreme Court, Bindu moved to Ernakulam City Commissioner’s office to appeal police protection so that she could enter the temple once again. At Commissioner’s office, she was attacked by a Hindu protester with the chilli spray on her face. Soon after the attack, she was taken to the hospital. ^[9]Indian Express The National Commission of Women gave the orders to the Kerala DGP to look into the matter. In December 2019, she was denied police protection by the Supreme Court of India for entering the temple. On the other side, the two culprits of spraying chilli powder were also given pre-arrest bail by the Kerala High Court on 24 February 2019. ^[10]Live Law The Kerala High Court in its verdict stated,
  

  The RSS/BJP and many Hindu organisations protested against the entry of activist women to Sabarimala Temple. However, the Government of Kerala supported the entry of activist women to Sabarimala Temple. Bindu Ammini was an ‘activist’ and not a devotee. ^[11]OP India

   

• She released an audio clip on social media platforms in November 2020 when she was threatened by an unknown man over the phone for acid attack. Later, the cases of 354 A (Sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation) were registered by the police against the unknown man.

• Bindu Ammini was seen protesting in favour of the farmers in New Delhi in 2020 during Kisan Aandolan.

  

• Bindu Ammini was spotted with Medha Patkar in Kisan Aandolan.