For Kargil widows, the war continues

quot;I am yet to overcome the trauma of losing my husband, but in-laws have started pressurising me for re-marriage with her brother-in-law. My refusal is doubted and they think I am planning to run away with their son8217;s money. Not realising that I am yet to forget the moments with him,quot; says Bina Devi, who is issueless.

Many of them are either forced to remarry against her wishes with a man who is either too young ortoo old for marriage. Or asking their other son if married to divorce his first wife to tie a knot with their bhabhi. Not to talk of in-laws, even family members of widows are trying to take advantage of the illiteracy of their daughter, by making them open a joint account so that they too can operate the passbook according to their wishes.

The Army Wives Welfare Association AWWA during their recent tour of the families of martyrs have found such practices. In order to prevent this money from falling into the wrong hands, they have launched a programme to educate these women on ways and means to utilise this cash assistance.

It is for the first time that each widow is getting 23 lakh as ex-gratia relief both from defence and state exchequer. Out of which six lakh is kept for the education of children. Eight lakh for plot and construction of house and one lakh for parents of the martyrs and rest of the money is at the helm of the widow.

quot;But even after clarifying all these things I was amazed tofind such socio-economic problems among the widows. We don8217;t want anything from them. Just we want them is to contact us whenever they face any such problem so that we can act accordingly to sort out their problems,quot; remarked Meera Khanna, president AWWA, Tiger Division here.

Regarding the forceful marriage of war widows, a senior army officer said that legally they cannot do anything to curb the practice unless and until the widow comes out strongly against the family members.