An activist in Maharashtra, who is on a mission to eradicate regressive practices related to widowhood, has started reaching out to the country's ministers and lawmakers to seek their cooperation in his demand for a law allowing these women to live a life of dignity.
Apart from the Lok Sabha members, activist Pramod Zinjade, who heads the Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal, is also writing to various government bodies seeking their cooperation for the cause.
Talking to PTI, Zinjade said he has sent letters to union women and child development minister Annapurna Devi, National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Rahatkar and all Lok Sabha members, seeking their help in efforts to eliminate the practices related to widowhood through gram panchayats and gram sabhas in India.
He made an appeal to the NCW for a direction to the women and child development ministry to ask all state governments to set up committees for the eradication of widowhood practices in villages across the country.
"Even today, widows are subjected to regressive practices, such as breaking their mangalsutra (necklace symbolising marriage), bangles and toe rings, removing their anklets and colourful clothes, shaving their heads and excluding them from social functions and family rituals. These inhuman practices still exist in many parts of our society," he said.
On 17 May 2022, after Herwad in Kolhapur district became the first village to pass a resolution in its gram sabha to ban customs related to widowhood, the Maharashtra administration had instructed all key government officials, officers and village panchayats to eliminate such discriminatory practices and promote dignity for widows, Zinjade said.
"Inspired by this, more than 7,000 gram panchayats across Maharashtra formed special committees through gram sabhas to eliminate the practice of widowhood and take a public stand to stop this kind of discrimination. As a result, the National Human Rights Commission and other central government bodies acknowledged this initiative and a recommendation has been made to replicate this model across India," he added.
Similar awareness and policy campaigns can be implemented through the Ministry of Women and Child Development so that this social evil can be eliminated, Zinjade said in the letter to NCW chief Rahatkar.
In letters to the Lok Sabha members, the activist urged them to raise this issue in Parliament and advocate for a law that allows widows in India to live with dignity and respect.
"Widows are forced to undergo degrading rituals which is a violation of the human rights granted under the Constitution. Every person has the freedom to live with dignity. The widowhood practices contradict that freedom," he said.
The NHRC has recommended the central government and all state chief secretaries to create a law abolishing the practice of widowhood in India, the activist said.
"We humbly request you to raise this issue in Parliament and advocate for a law that allows widows in India to live with dignity and respect," he said in the email.
In the letter to Union minister Annapurna Devi, the activist said awareness programmes across the country should be held, and urged her to direct state governments so that widowhood practices can be eliminated nationwide.
Herwad in Kolhapur became the first village in Maharashtra to prohibit the practices related to widows in May 2022.
