Kumari Puja is the worship of young virgin girls which is performed during Chaitra Navratri, Sharan Navaratri (September – October) and Durga Puja. The ritual is also known as Kumarika Pujan and is of great importance to some Hindu Communities in North India . Some people perform the ritual on all nine days and some only the Durga Ashtami and the Mahanavami day. Here is a simple explanation on how to perform Kumari Puja?
A young kumari girl is invited to the home during Navratri. Some people invite a young girl on all nine days. Some people perform the Kumarika Puja only on the Ashtami or Navami day. In rare cases some people invite nine young girls on any one of the days during Navratri.
The young girl is the representative of Goddess Shakti.
The young girl is invited a mat or stool is given to sit.
Then her feet are washed – this is known as padya puja. While performing the ritual one symbolically considers the young girl as Goddess Shakti.
Then she is offered a sumptuous meal on a banana leaf – in many regions kheer (a sweet from rice and milk) is offered as it is considered a favorite of Goddess Durga.
Next she is given new clothes and is bid adieu.
The Flip Side
Sadly some of the regions that are famous for Kumari Puja and Kanya Pooja are also notorious for female feticide and sex-determination tests and the subsequent abortion of female fetuses.
In fact, on the day of Kumari Puja homes in some of the cities in these regions find it hard to get a young girl for puja. The male to female ratio is well below national average. In one the most popular cities in the region the ratio is 773 women for per 1,000 men.
No Bhagavad Gita or No incarnation can change the mindset of such people, who one day worship the girl child and on another day abort a female fetus without any consideration.