Regional
Consultation on
SOCIAL STIGMA OF WIDOW WOMEN IN INDIA
6-7
April 2013
Rajkeeya
Sangralay (National Museum), Dampier Nagar, Mathura
On the first day of the consultation,
Mr. Istiaq Ahmed Khan, a senior member of Vigil Group, UP Region welcomed the
participants and the Resource Team. Mr.
John VM Juliana, Programme Manager, VIM briefly introduced about the Vigil
India Movement founded by Dr. M.A. Thomas during the emergency period
(1975-1977) with a vision to insist hope, fearlessness and struggle among the
people in order to promote human rights culture and to bring equality and
equity in India. He also emphasizes the relevance
of organizing this particular consultation at Mathura. The fact is that in India incidents of
inhuman attitudes towards women are very high and there were several cases of
violence against women have been reported from the remote village to the
capital. If this is the plight of an
ordinary women think of the status of widows and divorced women in India. It is disquieting to know that more than 40
million widows are living a dead life in India. Ironically more than 20000
widows are living in Mathura in which 90 percent of them are from Wet Bengal. They are denied of their basic rights and
being ill-treated in the name of tradition and culture. Incidentally Mathura is housing large number
of widows from various parts of India and their life cycle is traditionally
isolated.
Mrs. Sabira Khatoon, Former Trustee of VIM took a session
on ‘Social Stigma of Widow Women in India’.
She was briefly explained the Historical complexity in treating women in
India. Mrs. Khatoon briefed that the
word “Widhwa” is drawn from “Vidhi” and is known as “Vidhi ka Vidhan” in which it is assumed
that Vidhwa is also wish of the
creator. The God has created human
beings and given them full freedom but we as human start practicing the evil
culture and denying equal rights to women.
Generally women are treated as second citizen by culture and tradition
and they are not allowed freely to raise their voice for any concern. They are
suppressed and oppressed by the society.
The plight of Widow Women is too tragic.
There are several customs and tradition which oppressed to be an
isolated member of the society. Widows
are leading isolated undignified life and where as in Mathura alone more that
20000 Widows are living in pathetic condition in temples and in streets. They are sexually abused and denied shelter,
food and other basic amenities. She also
mentioned that even today, despite of several legal provisions and the
continuous struggle against the evil practice of “Sathi”, the society is
practicing “Manusmriti”, which exploits
women in several ways. The Widow Women has no rights to participate in social
functions at home and at the society.
Mrs. Pushplata Verma took a session on ‘Women Movement and
Women Rights issues in India’. Mrs.
Pushplata explained that Women Movement were
encouraged by Leaders like Sarojini
Naidu, Mahatma Gandhi and Ravindranath Tagore and now women movements are actively
raising voice in all social cause even in difficult situation. Today women organizations
are developing and they are raising their voices for cause of the women. Women empowerment
is the result of their voice. Reservation in the Panchayat election is the
glorious achievement of the movement where women will also take part in
decision making process. Speaking on the rights of the women she told that
property and marriage rights are there but the community or society has the
upper hand and they force women not to come out for their rights.
Mrs. Laxmi Gautam, NGO activist in Mathura elaborated that
in about 40,000 widow women are leading their drastic life in Mathura and its
surrounding areas. More that 90 percent of widow women are from West Bengal. The
localities in Mathura, Brindhavan and its surrounding speaks Bengali very
fluently that their own native language Hindi. These women are living in many
temples, Ashrams and trusts. They are called ‘Dasi of Bhagwan’ but they are leading very miserable and isolated
life. They are often exploited by the priest in the temples, ashrams and
trusts, once they become old; they are thrown out of ashrams and temples. Finally they are begging in streets. She also mentioned that number of abortion
clinics’ are increasing near Brindhavan. These widow women’s are forced to
infanticide the babies in womb itself, failing to do so would be vanished. They are paid Rs.12/ for 3hrs or Rs.99/per day
for singing Bhajan in the temples. A few
NGOs have taken initiative to rehabilitate the widows but the execution part is
in snail phase as the religious administrations are very strong in covering up
all the crimes by the religious and political power. Quite interestingly, she
has given contrasting statement about the Non-Bengali widows who are living in
Mathura. There are quite a few numbers
of widows (Non-Bengalis) in Mathura heading the family with family pride and
dignity.
At the end of the day the participants were divided in to
two groups and they were assigned to discuss the Role of Civil Society in Protecting
the Widow Rights.
- The government census should clearly collect the data of women in the family and in the ashrams, temples etc., in order to provide welfare schemes to them.
- NGOs, Civil Societies should organize regular awareness programme on Widow Rights and make the people to be known about the Human Rights Instruments.
- Empower Widow Women and make them to be independent social and economically rather than depending on Temples and Ashrams.
- Encourage re-marriage of Widow Women.
- Create employment opportunity for the Widow Women.
- Formation of Widow Welfare committee in Mathura and other places where Widows are living in large numbers.
- Government should take care of the Children of Widows in terms of education, health and other services.
- Government pension to Widow should be directly given to individual rather than temple administration and ashrams etc.,
- Affirm social security.
In the second day Mr. John VM Juliana and Mr. Mujeeb Ahmed
Khan, Convener of VIM, UP Region jointly took a session on “Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women”. The UN instrument was explained in details
and the Hindi version of the document is circulated among the participants.
Dr. Anant Yadav presented a paper on “Rights of Widow
Women in India”. While explaining the
Rights of the Women, Dr. Yadav insisted that the problem of Widow Women will
not be solved by law itself; it needs change in our thinking, attitude and the
change in our social customs. Abusing
and denying rights to widow women is a kind of mental disease the society has
strongly seeded in the mindset of the male chauvinist society, which need to be
cured. This may not be happened until
and unless the victims should rise for their freedom. So, it is an impeccable task for the civil
society organization to create awareness among the people to empower Widow
Women in India.
Women’s Social Security and Protection Mechanism: Mrs. Sadhna Bhargwa took a session and
emphasized that there is inadequate social security for women in our country. Women
are being harassed in all walks of life at home, at work place and at the
public places. Sexual harassments and exploitation
are increasing day by day and recent incidents on a running bus in New Delhi
shook the country. Incidents of acid attacks, teasing, and trafficking are
mounting fear on the common people to safeguard their girl children. The government should act immediately to
regulate rigorous law and equip the law enforcement mechanism to contral the
situation.
At the concluding session the participants brought out the
following statement to the Government and the society.
- Uphold the Rights of Women particularly the Widow Women in terms of social, economic, cultural and political advancement.
- Social responsibility of women should not be denied at any cost.
- Improve the Social Security measures by amending rigorous law to protect the women in India.
- Reservation policies for Widow Women should be strengthen and monitor that the reservation for Widow Women in all the departments are properly implemented.
- Widow women and their children should be taken care and make possible provisions to protect them from the customs and traditions.
- No Widow Women could be isolated at any point of time by the society and by the government.
- Develop and implement various welfare and rights based development programmes for widow women.
- Need regular seminars and consultations to create awareness among the people in order to promote and protect widows from all forms of discrimination.
- Civil Society should bring out the issues of Mathura to public, so that the people would support for the rehabilitation of Widows in Mathura.
At the end of the consultation Mr. Mujeeb Khan thanked all
the participants and Resource team and also requested the participants to
report the issues to Vigil India Movement, so that the VIM National Office will
take proper action through its urgent appeal to bring collective force in order
to voice against all forms of discrimination against women particularly Widow
women.
Mr. Mujeeb Ahmed Khan and Mr. Istiaq Ahmed Khan were
coordinated the programme at Mathura.
Mr. Than Singh and Mr. Prahlad Yadav served as local assistants for the
programme.
