Widows - India -
Vrindavan: Wedded to enterprise
The bleak picture of the
widows of Vrindavan is changing slowly. Usha Rai
reports on the economic independence and the life of dignity which
is slowly replacing the old attitude of helplessness and living off
charity.
Food for independence: The members of
the Aamar Bari guild making wadis
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April
and May are
blistering hot months in Vrindavan but the tide of pilgrims to this
birthplace of Lord Krishna has not abated. Nor has the population of
widows. It ranges from 12,000 to 15,000 and despite all the efforts of the
Department of Women at the Centre and the West Bengal government, their
numbers continue to grow. While many of them have been abandoned by their
families in this city of Gods, others come on their own seeking
moksha (eternal bliss) after death.
Efforts to move the
simians, all worthy descendants of Hanuman, have failed and those who have
to brave the heat for visiting the temples or for other work, hide their
spectacles and packets of food, particularly the prasad, as they
negotiate the open gutters, the endless flow of garbage and the potted and
pitted streets.
As frail widows,
many of them walking with the support of sticks, scurry to and from the
Bhajan ashrams, the monkeys can be seen scampering down temple
spires, lurking at the sharp turns of the narrow bylanes or swinging from
tree tops waiting to grab a tasty morsel from unsuspecting victims.
Spectacles and dark glasses grabbed are not returned till their grubby
hands are greased with a fruit or some food. Despite the congestion and
squalor of Vrindavan, more and more temples as well as guest houses and
apartment blocks are coming up.
Leather pouches and bags being stitched
by the women at Vrindavan. — Photos by the
writer
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Vrindavan, despite
all the charity pouring into the city and the endless rhythm of chanting,
conch shells and temple bells, seems to be caught in a time warp. Only the
discerning will get a whiff of the slow change taking place in the lives
of widows and the destitute in the city. Many widows are not wearing the
stark white clothes of widowhood—in fact they have opted for pastel and
printed saris— but those living in the Guild of Service’s Aamar Bari have
stopped going to the bhajan ashrams to chant and accept in charity
small sums of money and uncooked rice and dal.
At the forefront of
the movement to give vocational training and economic dignity to widows
and other destitute women is Guild of Service which runs Aamar Bari for
103 widows. Unfortunately, a majority of the residents of Aamar Bari are
too old to work. Pramoda is 90 to 95 years and Satyavati is said to be
112. Many of those bent double with age cannot obviously go out and work
but within the confines of the home they wash their own clothes, plates,
glasses and other utensils after having the meal prepared by the younger
inmates.
But the younger
ones in their 40s, 50s and even early 60s are eager to supplement their
income. From 10.30 a.m. till about 5 pm, with a break for lunch, is work
time. Shefali Chakravarty, a skilled craftsperson for leather goods and
for tailoring the poshak of Lord Krishna and his companion, Radha,
arrives with a few women trained by her, bundles of leather, bolts of
brightly coloured cloth for the deities’ dresses and the gold piping and
ribbons. All those interested in improving their economic status learn to
cut and stitch the leather pieces into functional leather pouches, bags to
carry loose coins, credit cards etc. While the bags to keep the mobile are
Rs 80 a piece, the smaller money bags etc cost Rs 60 to 40 a piece. In a
day, a trained woman can make three to five pouches. The older women make
cotton wicks for the lamps and the younger ones learn to stitch pretty
clothes for the gods and goddesses of Vrindavan. Shefali markets the goods
herself to traders in Agra, Jaipur, Mathura and Nainital.
A lot of the bags
and namkeens come to the Guild of Service office and are marketed
by the staff. The wicks for the lamps, the poshak of Radha and
Krishna, the beads for chanting and the neatly stitched cotton bags to
hold the beads are marketed to traders in the vicinity. Some women even
make petticoats and blouses. Drying in the sun at Aamar Bari are the
wadis. When it is not wadis the women are busy rolling out
papads.
The women, sitting
in the comfort of the home and working at their own pace, earn anything
from Rs 300 to Rs 800 a month. Some excellent namkeens are also
made by the women but only in season, says Bhagwati, the culinary expert
of the home. A Marwari from Calcutta, 60-year-old Bhagwati came to
Vrindavan two years ago after the death of her husband and father-in-law.
While her father-in-law was a manager of a mill, her husband looked after
a petrol pump. "I left my son to look after my mother-in-law and came to
Vrindavan for peace and solace," she says. Bhagwati is the official
chappati-maker of the home. The dough is kneaded by someone else
but chappati-making is her responsibility and she takes pride in
the softness of her chappatis. Every day a mountain of
chappatis are made. Bhagwati earns Rs 500 a month for making
chappatis and for the namkeens of the season another couple
of hundred rupees. Her son had just sent her four saris and she twirled
and proudly showed the one she was wearing. Bhagwati’s only weakness is
tobacco and she makes frequent visits to the shop around the corner for
the pudiya. In Kolkata her children would indulge her with a whole
box of paan bahar, she recalls. But Bhagwati has no complaints. She
is happy to be in Aamar Bari.
Vocational training
Vocational training
is given not only to the widows but to other poor women who want to
supplement the family income. Shyama Giri who lives in Durgapura colony of
Vrindavan learnt how to make Thakur’s dresses at Kishorpura six months
ago. For making a set of 12 dresses for the Lord she gets Rs 36. She and
her 14-year old daughter Uma Giri, who does the tailoring, work as a team.
If I could get a loan and buy the cloth and other trinkets for decorating
the Gods, I could earn up to Rs 100 a day, she says. Since Shyama’s
husband is a mahant, wearing saffron robes and wandering off on a
spiritual trip when he wishes, the income earned by the two women gets
food on the table for the whole family.
In 2004, when the
Akshaya Patra (midday meals) scheme was started by Krishna Heritage (the
Bangalore based ISKCON group), a small batch of widows from Aamar bari
went there to make chappatis, clean the rice and chop vegetables. They
were paid Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,500 a month. When Akshaya Patra went into
mechanised chappati-making, the work stopped for a lot of the women.
Chabbi, a widow from Bengal, who was with Aamar Bari for seven years, left
the ashram two years ago to stay in a rented room and work for Akshaya
Patra. She cleans rice and chops vegetables from 9.30 am to 5 pm and earns
Rs 1,500 a month. She gets her lunch at her work place and has only to
cook one meal a day. Occasionally, she goes to the Bhajan ashrams to sing
and earn a little extra. She does not find it demeaning. In her mid-50s,
Chabbi has walked out of the shelter of the home and is an independent
member of society. She pays a nominal rent of Rs 400 a month and has a
bank account. A lot of widows have bank accounts and their deposits are
growing slowly but steadily.
Some 200 widows and
young, unemployed women have done a three-month-course as nursing aides
and most of them are employed in the hospitals and nursing homes of
Vrindavan, Mathura and Agra. Chabbi’s daughter, 30 years old Lalitha, came
to Vrindavan six years ago not in search of her mother but to improve her
own life. Her husband, a house painter, was finding it difficult to get
work in Bengal and Vrindavan seemed a good option. So husband in tow, she
landed at Vrindavan and sought the help of Aamar Bari and Guild of
Service, where her mother was staying. Lalitha was in one of the first
batches to do the nursing aide’s course. She works at Aamar Bari and helps
look after the old and infirm. She gives injections, drips, bedpan and
sponges and changes the clothes of the bed ridden.
Fortynine-year-old
Usha Dei is her patient at Aamar Bari. When Usha came to Aamar Bari two
years ago she could walk and do her work with some difficulty. But a spine
injury that occurred after an accident some 15 years ago has resurfaced
and today she is confined to her bed and is not even able to lift her leg.
It is Lalitha who bathes and changes her clothes every day. In all there
are some 30 sick and old inmates who need the assistance of Lalitha and
two other nursing aides.
Lalitha would
probably get a better-paid job in one of the city hospitals but with two
small children and very little knowledge of Hindi, she feels she can
contribute more to the inmates of Aamar Bari. Lalitha takes home Rs 800 a
month.
Banking on self
A study of the
widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi by Meera Khanna, Guild of Service, in
2003 shows that 66 per cent and 73 per cent of those living in
rehabilitation homes and boarding houses in Vrindavan have bank accounts.
The corresponding figure for Varanasi is 35 per cent and 60 per cent. This
indicates some modicum of comfort. But 73 per cent of those living on the
streets have no bank account nor do they have anything to bank on when
they fall ill or meet with an accident.
Fifty of the 103
inmates of Aamar Bari get a widow or destitute’s pension. They also have
ration cards and are registered voters. Twice a year, Rs 900 at a time, is
credited to their account as pension. The Guild of Service provides these
widows Rs 100 a month as pocket money and most of them have bank accounts
and know how to withdraw and deposit money. Their monthly earnings are
used to buy a sari or some other necessity. Most of them have anything
from Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,500 in their account, says Vimla, a coordinator with
the Guild of Service. Some could have much more. On entering Aamar Bari,
their stories are recorded by the counsellor. In their will they also name
family members who should be informed in case of death and to whom they
would like to leave their savings and other possessions. If no one comes
after an inmate dies, Aamar Bari does the cremation and spends anything
from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 on it. Unless all the rituals are performed
properly, the widows believe they will not attain moksha. In fact,
they all spell out in their wills the kind of cremation they want
performed. When Kaushalya, a popular inmate who loved dancing and singing
died recently, her son was informed in Narsinghpur, Madhya Pradesh. He
asked Aamar Bari to do the cremation and reached a few days later to feed
all the inmates.
The kosh or
fund created by the money left behind by the widows to the Guild of
Service has Rs 20,000. When Ma Dham, being set up on 3 acres of land at
Chattikara, near the entrance to Vrindavan for 500 widows and women in
difficult circumstances, becomes operational this kosh will be put
to good use. Vocational training will be the focus of Ma Dham. There is
space to set up a production centre, but more attention will have to be
given to bulk production of orders and marketing, whether for leather
goods or namkeens. Though the foundation stone for Ma Dham has been
laid and buildings are coming up, it has not been easy for the Guild of
Service to raise funds for its ambitious project. A spiritual centre, a
vocational training centre, a dairy farm, a tulsi farm, a turmeric field
are envisaged at Ma Dham so that women can introspect, interact and gain
in self esteem. Since Ma Dham is close to ISKCON’s Krishna Heritage, the
Guild could have tie-ups with Krishna Heritage and ensure jobs for the
women living in Ma Dham. Akshaya Patra is also thinking of getting back
the women to roll out 40 to 50 per cent of the
chappatis.
Sustenance &
self-esteem
Economic
empowerment of a widow or a single woman is perhaps the most essential
support that can be extended. It not only helps in providing sustenance
but also raises her esteem in the eyes of society. Bhajan Ashrams have
been providing the widows in Vrindavan sustenance and support. However, in
view of the changing social perceptions and practices, the Guild would
like them to modify their assistance. They should provide accommodation
for the widows in their ashrams; provide vocational training either on
their own or with the support of NGOs; discourage begging and even monitor
their donations to prevent excess items reaching the same person who then
sells them in the market.
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Double
burden
According to the 2001 census, nine
per cent of the total female population or 34 million are widows in India.
In 2004 there were 3.72-lakh war widows. Every fourth house in India has a
widow but there have been few state interventions.
One intervention,
aimed at extending social security benefits to widows is the old age
pension scheme. Almost all states and union territories have old age
pension scheme for those above 65 years. Andhra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and
Kerala have special pension schemes for agriculture labour. In Kerala,
destitute widows of 40 and above are eligible for pension. Similar schemes
exist in Orissa and Gujarat for a widow of 50 and 45 years respectively.
Karnataka provides pension for widow of 18 years.
A widow is
considered destitute if she is without any regular income and has no
relation of 20 years or above, particularly a son or grandson and has not
remarried. Widows without relatives, who do not own land or a house worth
Rs 1000, who do not wear jewels worth Rs 500 or more or who do not
have regular employment are also considered destitute. The destitute widow
has to apply on a prescribed form to the tehsildar, who after
verification and sanction dispatches the amount by money order.
However, accessing
the pension is a Herculean task.
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The
application forms are not easily available at the panchayat offices or if
they are, the concerned officer gives them as a favour.
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The
forms are not user-friendly. The widow, most often illiterate, has to
submit proof of age, duly authenticated by the prescribed
authority.
·
The
forms have to be submitted at the taluk office which is far off. The
widows of Vrindavan have to spend Rs 10 to go to Mathura to submit forms.
Follow up requires a couple of more visits.
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Verification of the form is
a long process. Most widows do not have birth certificate to prove their
age. Often they pay a private doctor to get a certificate.
·
There is
a great deal of arbitrariness on whether the widow is truly destitute or
not. If she has a son or grandson, then the application could be rejected
even if they don’t want to keep her.
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Finally
after all the effort, the pension obtained is grossly inadequate.
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Culturally ostracised,
socially marginalised, traumatised by personal loss, economically
deprived, the widow is discriminated twice—as a woman and as a
widow.
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