Widows in Maharashtra will not have to wipe the vermilion and break the bangle: In Africa, in the in-laws’ house or with a stranger, they make a relationship – wash their husband’s body and drink water.

Maharashtra has taken a great initiative regarding widow women. An order has been issued by the Ministry of Rural Development of the state for all the Gram Sabhas to stop the inhuman rituals performed with women when they become widows.

Recently, such rituals with widowed women have been banned in the Herwad Gram Panchayat in Kolhapur. Rural Development Minister Hassan Mushrif has said in his order- ‘Herwad Gram Panchayat in Kolhapur has passed a resolution in this regard banning the rituals of widow system.’ Now rest of the Gram Panchayats of the state should come forward taking inspiration from him.

Now the bangle will not break if you are a widow, nor will you have to wipe the vermilion

The Herwad gram panchayat in Shirol taluka of Kolhapur district passed a resolution banning rituals like removing a widow’s mangalsutra, toe ring (beechha), wiping vermilion, breaking a bangle. This proposal was brought on 5 May. The Gram Sabha accepted this proposal on the initiative of Pallavi Kolekar, Village Development Officer and Sarpanch Surgonda Patil in Herwad Gram Panchayat.

In India, after the death of her husband, there is an undeclared social boycott of the woman. They are banned from going to any social and religious program. Many restrictions are imposed on their living and eating habits. The minister’s order states that these practices violate human rights.

About four and a half crore widows in the country, get pension up to 300-500

Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh is also known as the city of widows. Widows come here from different places and live. Governments in different states give widow pension up to Rs 300-500 for their maintenance. There are about 4.5 crore widows in the country. In Maharashtra, an order giving a positive message has come, but the condition of widowed women across the world is very bad.

Widows in Africa have to make relationships with in-laws

In many countries of Africa, a strange process is adopted for the purification of widows. In this, widows have to drink water after washing the feet of their husband’s corpse. Widows have to have a relationship with a relative or a stranger in their in-laws’ house. Only then are they considered pure. To remove the soul of their husband from inside these women, one has to resort to tantra-mantra and inhuman procedures.

The practice of confiscating the property of widows in many countries including India

In many countries like India, Bangladesh, Botswana, Angola, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, there is also a custom to confiscate the property of widows after the death of the husband. During this time widows are thrown out of the house. His property is taken over by his in-laws.

India and China at the forefront of widows population

According to the 2017 ‘World Widow Report’ of the Loomba Foundation, there are about 250 million widows worldwide. Every seventh of these widows are living in conditions of extreme poverty. India and China have one third of the world’s widowed population. There are about 45 million widowed women in both China and India. Between 2020 and 2015, the death of a husband due to illness or war caused a 9% increase in the population of widows. During this period, the population of widows in the Middle East and North Africa grew at the fastest rate of 24 percent in the world.

Worst situation in Russia, US, Ukraine, South Korea, Egypt – better in Mexico
During this study on the condition of widows of 17 developed and developing countries. In this, the condition of widows is worst in Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, Argentina, France, America, Azerbaijan. The condition of widows in India was better than them. Turkey, South Korea, Nigeria, Egypt and Mexico are the names of the best dealing with widows.