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Rehabilitation centre to bail out Vrindavan widows

Often discarded by their families, ostensibly to further their quest for moksha (salvation), countless widows have ended up exploited and destitute in the Brajbhumi towns of Mathura and Vrindavan.

In an attempt to rescue them from this trap, a home-cum-vocational training centre will be inaugurated in Vrindavan on October 2 by National Human Rights Commission Chairman M N Venkatachaliah.

The home, being set up by the Guild of Service and the Mathura-based Braj Bhoomi Sansthan, would start by initially providing shelter and vocational training to 200 widows. The target by the year end would be to take in some 500 widows under the wings of Amar Bari (our home), Mohini Giri, former National Commission for Women chairperson and chief of the Guild of Service told the media.

Citing a 1996 study commissioned by the NCW on the plight of the Vrindavan widows, Giri said, ''Abandoned by their families, these women have no financial, social or emotional support and often fall prey to greedy and unscrupulous agencies.''

Molested, cheated and thrown on to the streets when they cannot afford to pay for their accommodation, some 15,000 widows live a precarious existence in the Brajbhumi, said Swaraj Lata Goel of the Braj Bhumi Sewa Sansthan.

Amar Bari would aim at rehabilitating the predominantly Bengali widows in Vrindavan by providing them a roof over their heads and giving them vocational training with the help of local women entrepreneurs.

The Union ministry of social justice and empowerment has been requested for a grant of Rs 1.5 million for the project and the response has been positive, Giri said.

UNI

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