WUNRN
Women's Feature Service
INDIA - NEW HOPE & SUPPORT FOR
WIDOWS OF VARANASI +
Widows of Varanasi
By Aasha Khosa
They pray all day, sing bhajans (hymns) and live off the food and alms
given by visiting pilgrims. Their sole ambition is to die on the banks of the
holy river. Such a death, they believe, will cleanse their souls of the sins of
their past lives and assure them an entry into heaven. Sadly, Jamuna and Ratna
are among the hundreds of widows in
For centuries, the narrow bylanes of the city have been home to widows,
many of whom hail from the eastern state of
Last year, when shocking reports of the inhuman disposal of the bodies
of widows living in government shelters in Vridavan surfaced in the media, it
caught the attention of the Supreme Court, which pulled up the state and
central governments and ordered select non-government organisations to take
charge of their maintenance.
A Bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur directed the Uttar
Pradesh government to ensure that the last rites of these women are properly
conducted. In addition, it directed the National Legal Services Authority to
contact organisations like the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
and Sulabh International to find out whether they could come forward to help
the widows living in appalling conditions in government shelters at Vrindavan.
Bindeshwar Pathak, who heads Sulabh International, has taken the court's
directive quite seriously. And in a bid to restore dignity and purpose to the
lives of these unfortunate women, has expanded his mission beyond
Pathak does know a thing or two about working towards empowering women
to fight for their rights. After all, Sulabh International has been the driving
force behind the toilet revolution in
Now it's the turn of widows to get their due in society. Of course,
Jamuna Devi and her friends at Nepali Mandir are not sure why they are suddenly
getting so much attention. Just the other day, informs Jamuna, their third
floor house had 'visitors', who offered to pay them a monthly pension of Rs
2,000. Moreover, they were also invited to the Ganga Ghat for a special prayer
meeting.
Jamuna made it to that meeting. Bent with age and with a tonsured head,
her deeply wrinkled face betraying a lifetime of struggle, she looked up as
Pathak spoke and quickly identified him as one of the those visitors who had
come to her home.
For Pathak, the cause of the widows is a top priority now. Over the last
few months, his organisation has made available two ambulances for the widows
of
According to media reports, Sulabh has even prepared a draft bill for
the protection, welfare and maintenance of abandoned and destitute widows. The
proposed Protection, Welfare and Maintenance of Widows Bill, 2013, recommends a
subsistence allowance of Rs 2,000 per month for each woman, in addition to free
residential accommodation, education, vocational training and medical facilities.
It adds that a widow shall not be evicted from the house of her in-laws or
parents, and would be entitled to property as per inheritance laws.
At Vridha Ashram, a home for elderly widows near Sarnath, a few
kilometres from
According to Anita, who runs the Vridha Ashram, it's difficult to
sustain the facility because the government funds are irregular. "The
government provides Rs 50 as monthly medical allowance for each woman. This is
not even enough to pay the doctor's fees," she says.
When Pathak and his volunteers visited the ashram it brought some cheer
into the lives of these otherwise forgotten women. Clearly it was a joyful
moment, as they sang folk songs in Bhojpuri. One elderly inmate even broke into
a dance.
Pathak's initiative has kindled the hopes of many. But how many widows
can one man reach out to? Pathak doesn’t answer that question directly. All he
says is that he is an innovator of ideas and not merely an executioner. But he
believes that things can be changed using simple methods.