Women, if trained, can be appointed in temples as priests, Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR and CE) P.K. Sekar Babu said on Saturday.
Addressing reporters after a review meeting of regional joint commissioners of the department, he said that many women had submitted petitions seeking permission to perform puja at temples.
“Already we have women who perform pujas in rural areas. Temples like Mel Malayanur and Mel Maruvathur have women as priests. In fact, we have women who have been appointed as Odhuvars,” he said.
About appointing archakas (temple priests) from all communities in temples, he said that it would be done soon by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin.
“If required the 200-odd persons would be provided a refresher course by the department since it has been a long time since they underwent training,” he noted.
Temple priests too would be given a refresher course on performing archanais in Tamil. “We plan to install boards in temples with names and phone numbers of priests, who will perform the archanai in Tamil,” he said.
The department was taking stock of the vacancies of archakas and temple staff and the vacancies would be filled up soon. B. Chandramohan Secretary, Tourism, HR and CE department; and J. Kumaraguruparan, Commissioner HR and CE, were present.