Villages in Maharashtra vow to stop humiliation of widows

Last week, an official of Masal gram panchayat of the tribal taluka of Surgana in Nashik district passed away at a private hospital in Beed during treatment. Within hours, the message of his last rites was circulated among the villagers. As it informed the fellow villagers of his demise, it also gave one key message.

“In consonance with the idea of maintaining the dignity of our women, it was decided that the evil tradition of wiping away of vermillion, removal of bangles, toe rings and mangalsutra (akin to thaali worn by married women), will not be followed,” the message said about the family’s decision to not let the widow of the official face the social humiliation.

“We are sad about his unfortunate demise, but this is the first response to our effort in stopping the evil traditions which humiliate our women,” the message read further.

For centuries now, the tradition of publicly removing the ornaments considered to be the symbols of marriage for a woman has been prevalent in Maharashtra. This includes the villagers coming together and gathering around the widowed woman to strip her off her bindi, her necklace, her toe rings, her bangles. The tradition is humiliating for the widows who are made to socially realise the lack of their status in the society due to the demise of their husbands. While it is not openly followed in many urban areas anymore, it is still a common practice in the rural areas.

But now, 915 villages in Maharashtra’s Nashik district have passed a resolution that they will not follow this evil tradition in their villages anymore. Moreover, over 1,100 couples have also signed an affidavit saying they will not let their spouse face this humiliation after their death. The women have signed the affidavit saying they will not follow this tradition, and that they will not let the society strip them off their dignity.

The affidavit, signed on a bond paper of ₹100 by each couple is named ‘Saubhagyache Shapathpatra’. It states, “We follow the progressive ideas of Mahatma Phule and Gopal Ganesh Agarkar. As a responsible part of the society, we have complete faith in equality, freedom and dignity enshrined in our Constitution. Even today, a woman is subjected to humiliation after the demise of her husband. Evil traditions like the stripping of her ornaments, wiping off her vermillion, stopping her from wearing certain coloured clothes, are among the social and religious restrictions placed on her. They are painful and unscientific, and are in complete contravention of her fundamental rights. So, we pledge that we will not follow any such evil traditions. We will work to spread social awareness against them. We will not impose anything on women against their own will.”

A single village in Sinnar named Gulwanch has given 250 affidavits so far. Schoolchildren have also started spreading awareness about the evil tradition, performing street plays and convincing their parents to sign the affidavits.

A woman from Chandshi had tears in her eyes as her gram panchayat passed the resolution against it. “Don’t let anyone remove these ornaments. There should be a law against it. As women, we are in full support of this move,” she said, wiping her tears, as the gram panchayat handed roses to the widows of the village.

The move is a part of the Navchetana programme being implemented by the Nashik Zilla Parishad for the past three months. The programme aims at spreading social awareness against the ill treatment to widows and empowering them with workshops, self-employment opportunities, loans, education for their children.

“Maharashtra is a progressive State which has always been at the forefront of social reforms. These practices not only strip the women of their dignity, they also make them feel inferior in the social setup after they lose their spouses. That is why we decided to implement this programme. For the social assimilation of the widows, we also organise ‘haldi-kunku’ programme at each village. The idea is, there should be no social discrimination against widows,” said Omkar Pawar, chief executive officer of Nashik Zilla Parishad.