India plans to ease widows' suffering Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | December 24, 2007
INDIA has announced an ambitious plan to alleviate the plight of widows, with new estimates showing more than 33 million are living in "dumping grounds for unwanted women". The dominant Hindu religion frowns on women remarrying, and widows are frequently marginalised and stripped of their basic rights and livelihood after their husbands die. Many widows - at least 40per cent are said to be under 50 - are dumped by their relatives in religious towns and left to live off charity or beg on the streets. Their plight was highlighted in the award-winning film Water, which had to be shot mainly outside India because of religious opposition to the production. The Minister for Women and Child Development, Renuka Chowdhury, yesterday announced a program to rehabilitate and train widows, and help them remarry. "The proposal is they should be given training so they can earn a livelihood," Ms Chowdhury said. "And then we will see how we can organise forums where eligible young men will come forward to meet these ladies. We've often had a good response whenever we have tried to organise matches for young women who've been brought up in orphanages." A senior official in Ms Chowdhury's ministry said: "There was a time when women's lives ended with that of their husbands. Across India, widows were considered inauspicious, and many from upper castes were forced to leave their homes and spend their lives in prayer in the religious cities of Varanasi and Vrindavan." A recent survey by the ministry showed that in Vrindavan more than 3000 widows were living in poverty, with thousands more in surrounding areas. But there is no certainty Ms Chowdhury's plan will win support, given the prejudices and conventions imposed by religion. And the attempt to help widows provides a contrast to India's battle with another great social evil, the abortion and killing of girl babies, which has eroded the male-female ratio in the country to an average of 750 females to every 1000 males. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22967121- 25837,00.html Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED] List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
