Widows8217; woes: Even a pilgrimage is hell for them

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Giri said the Guild of Service, New Delhi is organising a two-day national seminar on Widows: Neglect and Social Action at the India International Centre on February 26 and 27, which will be inaugurated by Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The objectives of the seminar are to understand factors contributing towards discrimination of widows, identify measures for their rehabilitation, generate public opinion against the practice of ostracism and provide shelters for widows and abandoned women.

According to the 1991 census, there are 33 million widows in India, in other words eight per cent of the female population are widows. Every fourth household in India has a widow and fifty per cent of the widows are over 50 years of age.

The Guild of Service, Delhi, has been working in the field of widow rehabilitation for the past two decades. After having successfully rehabilitated widows of 1962 and 1971 wars, in cooperation with War Widows Association, the Guild has now launched a project for the widows and deserted women living in Mathura and Vrindavan. The exploitation of women in Mathura and Varanasi and Tirupati is the biggest crime against women and is an act of violence against them, it was pointed out.

The women mostly widows, but some abandoned by husbands, are brought by relatives to Mathura and Vrindavan on the pretext of being taken on a pilgrimage. Once there they are left in a strange and unknown city to fend for themselves, according to a study conducted by the National Commission for Women.

The younger ones are soon pursued by unscrupulous elements and forced into prostitution. Their bodies are bartered like commodities. These helpless women have no one to turn to. The Dharamasala do not allow extended stay and with rising prices shelter has become unaffordable. Instead of the 8220;Moksha8221; they were promised there is destitution and humiliation.