Monday, Mar 5, 2007
| Stigma of widowhood Still Strong in Modern India!
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The desperate plight of Indian widows depicted in the Oscar-nominated film "Water," set in the 1930s, remains almost unchanged in this dusty pilgrimage temple town where thousands of them dwell.
 An Indian widow at an ashram in Vrindavan
© AFP Manpreet RomanaThe women, cast off by their families who see them as bad luck and a financial drain, sing hymns and beg in Vrindavan, known as the "City of Widows," 135 kilometers (80 miles) south of the Indian capital New Delhi.
"God sent us into this world alone and we will leave alone," said Hemata Mukherji, as she shuffled toward the Shri Bhagwan prayer house where she earns six rupees (14 cents) a day and a meagre portion of rice and dal for singing "Hare Rama, Hare Krishna" for eight hours.
Sixty-two-year-old Mukherji, dressed in a grubby white "widow's" sari, said she had six children but none wanted to take her in, so she came from Kolkata seven years ago to live in Vrindavan on the banks of the Yamuna River.
 Indian widows at an ashram in Vrindavan
© AFP Manpreet Romana"They didn't want me," Mukherji said before entering the dimly-lit ashram where officials say more than 1,000 widows sing hymns to Lord Krishna in shifts to achieve "moksha" or liberation from the cycle of birth and rebirth.
Vrindavan lies near the place where the Lord Krishna is believed to have spent his childhood. Many of the women have lived there for decades.
"They are poor women, they are sent off by their families. They have no money. What are they to do?" asked prayer house official Madan Gopal to the sound of the widows singing and cymbals clashing.
The sight of the widows of Vrindavan, many stick thin and struggling to walk, is at odds with India's new image as an emerging economic powerhouse, said Mohini Giri, who runs a widows' refuge in Vrindavan.
"The stories are still the same. The children abandon them," Giri said.
 An Indian widow at an ashram in Vrindavan
© AFP Manpreet Romana"She is not wanted. The easiest thing is to throw her out," Giri said. "She only has status as a wife."
India has at least 33 million widows according to census figures, the most in the world.
Many have tales of rejection as the stigma of widowhood is still strong in some traditional quarters and they are obliged to shave their heads and dress in white.
The treatment of widows is such a controversial topic that Indian-born Deepa Mehta was forced to abandon the filming of her Oscar-nominated film "Water" in India, finally completing it in Sri Lanka in 2004.
When Mehta started shooting the film, protesters destroyed the set and claimed the movie was part of a plot to besmirch the image of Hinduism. She even received death threats.
"It was very unfortunate, very difficult then (at the time of the filming)," recalled the Toronto-based Mehta, who is a Canadian citizen.
 An Indian widow at an ashram in Vrindavan
© AFP Manpreet Romana"It was very important for me to make the film as it was very special to me," said Mehta who attended the Oscar awards ceremony on Feb 25, 2007.
The Hindi-language movie, nominated by Canada for the best foreign-language Oscar, tells the story of a group of widows who were forced to live as destitute "servants of god" during British colonial times in the 1930s.
"Water" premiered at the Toronto film festival in 2005 but even after the film won acclaim from foreign audiences, Indian distributors were reluctant to show it.
It is now slated to be released nationwide next month by Ravi Chopra, a Mumbai director known for making socially conscious movies, who bought the distribution rights.
"I feel the movie is beautiful and deserves to be seen by Indians," said Chopra.
 Indian widows at an ashram in Vrindagan
© AFP Manpreet RomanaIn Vrindavan, temple authorities use donations to provide dingy shelters and clothes for the sad-faced women who cluster around visitors, plucking at them for money.
A study by India's National Commission for Women found more than 10,000 widows who had come to Vrindavan. Thousands of others live in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges.
At the refuge which Giri runs in Vrindavan, 68-year-old Bina Shen said her businessman son threw her out after she gave him her house.
"He just told me 'Go.' He doesn't know where I am," Shen said at the shelter where 105 women live in tiny rooms. The rooms have no heating or fans.
"I'm happy here," Shen insisted even as her eyes brimmed with tears. "We are all one family."
Not all the women who have come to Vrindavan are widows.
Some are women with no families.
"I have no sister, no brother, no auntie. There's only God and I think he has forgotten me," said 73-year-old Roshan Shroff who never married.
©AFP
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