The Tirumala Tirupathi Devasthanam complex, which attracts 50,000 devotees every day, has decided to recruit women barbers at its Kalyanakatta (tonsuring centre).

This is for the convenience of lady devotees who throng the sanctum sanctorum of Lord Venkateswara and Goddess Padmavathi.

The TTD Trust board took the decision at a meeting on Thursday. This fulfills a longstanding demand of pilgrims.

Incidentally, a local non-government organisation has trained a group of women barbers in Chittoor district. The trainees had formed an association recently and submitted a memorandum to Endowments Minister M Satyanarayana Rao demanding that the TTD hire their services.

The proposal to recruit women barbers was initiated in 2001 by the then TTD executive officer P Krishnaiah.

TTD Trust board member B Karunakar Reddy raised the issue recently and the board decided to recruit about 100 female barbers.

Presently, the Kalyanakatta employs 400 barbers, all men, who work round-the-clock.