Bhopal: The State Human Right Commission has issued notices to Ujjain district collector and Mahakal temple committee seeking their reply over the denial of entry into the shrine to Arunima Sinha, the first female amputee to scale Mount Everest. The temple authorities had not allowed Arunima, the former national-level volleyball player, to enter the sanctum sanctorum of Mahakal temple as she did not adhere to the dress code.
Taking cognizance of the issue, the Commission has asked the district collector and the temple committee to inform about the arrangements made for the elderly people and especially abled persons at the temple. ‘To enter the temple’s Nandi hall, is there any information displayed about the specific clothing?’ the Commission wants to know.
Arunima, in a tweet had alleged that her disability was mocked at when she visited the temple on December 24, prompting the state’s women and child development minister Archana Chitnis to order an inquiry. The mountaineer had said she felt “greater pain” while visiting the temple than climbing the Mount Everest, theworld’s highest peak at 8,848 metres. She had also tagged the Prime Minister’s Office and the Madhya Pradesh chief minister’s office in her tweet.
“According to the temple tradition, only women wearing sarees and men in dhotis are allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum during the bhasma aarti in the morning,” the temple administration had said.
