Life of widows in India: "The city of widows"

"Saubhagyavati Bhava" a blessing given to married Hindu women, so that they may spend their whole lives married but when these women outlive their husbands same blessing turns into curse. Do you know there are 40 million widows in India, that is 10 per cent of country's population. 

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Why are widows considered inauspicious?

According to an old Indian superstition, a widow's sins are to blame for her husband's death. As a result, widows face a lifetime of atonement. They have to cut their hair short, wear joyless white mourning saree, and they are prohibited from attending celebrations and social events. 

Some families force widows to leave their homes and beg in the streets. widows become untouchable, invisible and ignored, as many feel they bring bad luck. 

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Some parts of Indian society consider widows to be inauspicious. When a women becomes a widow, many families just abandon them at old age homes or shelter sometimes on the pretext of sightseeing in Varanasi. 

Most of the women living in this home for widows were married off at very young ages, some as young as 11. And widow's remarriage is still frowned upon in many parts of the country, as it is against some people religion. That's why to follow the traditions with which they were brought up, none of these women chose remarry. 

Vrindavan "The City Of Widows" in India

Vrindavan is a home of thousands of Indian widows, who were banished by their families. Because their families considers them a burden or useless. Widows are no longer expected to throw themselves on their husband's funeral pyres, but they are compelled to live a gloomy life begging and praying. Vrindavan "The city of widows", serves above 10,000 widows, they are marginalized and neglected population.

Every day widows from all over the India arrive in Vrindavan, they come to seek the protection of Krishna, to chant mantras and to meditate on their own mortality. 

Sometimes they live in great poverty, they beg for their survival and sing bhajans, hymns for Rs. 3 for 4 hours, but there are lots of NGOs that are helping and provide encourage to them. 

Holi celebration of widows in Vrindavan

Yet a small group of widows violated a 400-years-old Hindu tradition by taking part in Holi festival, the sacred festival of colors. 

Widows who celebrated Holi in Vrindavan said, "playing Holi has brought new colors into our lives"

Celebrating Holi, alongside Hari Dasi and many other rebel widows, we see the transformation in these women, a glimpse of hope as they finally experience some sense of bliss and purpose. 

"Their participation in Holi symbolises a break from tradition which forbids a widow from wearing coloured sarees, among many other things"

This special celebration is set to add a new color to the Holi festival in "Braj", popular among both Indian and foreign tourists.

At least 1,000 kg gulal in different colors is being arranged for the Holi programme being organized by NGO Sulabh International. 

The Holi revelries began with songs, dances and these widows who wear only white sarees will smear a gamut of colors on each other to celebrate the festival, breaking away from years of social stigma prevalent in the society. 

Save the Humanity 

There are lots of NGOs they are doing their best to help widows, and provide them with home and comfort as they await their deaths. 

One of them is Maitri NGO, MAITRI stands for "loving-kindness-compassion. A NGO located in New Delhi, India, launched project "Jeevan" on the 4th of July 2010, the project Jeevan provides widows in Vrindavan with a daily mid-day-meals, nutritional supplements, clothing and facilitates health car, which includes cataract surgeries, breast cancer screening, treatment of major diseases, to 500 elderly, abandoned widows. 

Maitri also ensures their respect and dignity in death by performing funeral services as per their religious needs. We really appreciate their work and thankful to them for serving lots of mothers. 

Let's break this widow discrimination, stand in solidarity with widows, defend their rights, do away with humiliating superstitions. Offer them support and encouragement. Treat them with respect and dignity. If you are able then help these kind of NGOs and join them. 

Every year we celebrate women's day and mothers day and we post pictures of them on different social media , on the same time there are lots of women suffering from grief and struggling a lot to survive. Where is our humanity???

A very important thing is EDUCATION. It is only source of life to how to survive in this world, so please educate your children and tell them the value of their parents. Educate your girl child so that she can be independent and never depend on someone else. 

Thank You for coming.

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