Widows, on the fringe of empowerment

Usha Rai

In January 2012, 80 kilometers southwest of Nepal's capital, Kathmandu, Dhengani Mahato, a 40 year old widow, was burnt alive after being accused of witchcraft. Dhegani had been living in Chitwan with her 10-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter after her husband had died of cancer seven years earlier. Dhengani was attacked and set on fire by her brother-in-law, Bikana Mahato and others, after being accused of casting a spell that made a relative sick. Even as neighbours watched, Dhengani was beaten with sticks and rocks before being doused with kerosene and set afire. Nobody came to her rescue.

In India, 19-year-old  Mankanwar married a farmer in Kota district of Rajasthan in 1993 and moved with his joint family. Seven years later, her husband died of cancer. A mother of two, uneducated and widowed, she was thrown out by her in-laws who hounded her to give up her share in the family property. Fortunately, she heard of the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS), an organisation that works for single women in Udaipur and sought help. Through its support, she has not only been able to get control of her share in the family property, but today, is also a block representative of ENSS in Kota, helping other single women get their entitlements. Mankanwar represents the group of 80,000 widows/single women of Rajasthan, Bihar, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Punjab who have come together under the National Forum for Single Women's Rights.

In Sri Lanka, Sivalingam Arasamma from Batticaloa lost her husband Udayakumar in 1990. He disappeared during the conflict. She was 28  at the time. She assumed the responsibility of bringing up their three young children. Initially, she worked as a domestic help and then joined a cooperative in making bamboo artifacts. "Despite all my hard work and attempts to lead a dignified life, the stigma of being a widow stayed with me", says Arasamma. Even when she went abroad, she could not get the respect she deserved. 

Sons as protectors 
Finally at 50, Arasamma, with her three children married and well settled, has come to terms with her life. Her children now protect her from public humiliation and barbs. Arasamma was included in the UN Women's widow empowerment project in 2012 by the Women's Education and Research Centre (WERC), a non-government organisation working for women. Today, she helps other disadvantaged women access their entitlements by accompanying them to the government secretariat and assisting them to fill relevant forms.

The recently released report of UN Women, Empowering Widows: An Overview of Policies and Programmes in India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, shows that widows continue to be discriminated against despite programmes for them in all the three countries. However, they are scattered across several ministries and there is no single government authority to take responsibility for their implementation. The result is that benefits that should accrue to them elude most of them.

The study also shows that not all policies are inclusive. Even though there is a policy for pension for widows, not all widows can be assured they will get this important entitlement. In India, if a widow's economic status changes and she moves above the poverty line, she is no longer eligible for pension. And, widows only above 40 years of age are entitled for pension. This means that a large number of young widows do not get any government support. In Rajasthan and Gujarat, widows are not entitled to pension if they have sons of 25 and 21 years respectively, who are considered responsible and old enough to support their mothers.  In Sri Lanka, widows whose husbands were not part of the government system are excluded from the pension programme. The abysmally poor, unemployed widow is supposed to get a public assistance allowance of Sri Lankan Rupees 500, which is about US $4, every month. Women, whose husbands disappeared during the conflict, have to wait for seven years before they are officially recognised as widows. During this seven-year -wait, they face immense economic hardships.

Single window approach
Nepal has an inclusive pension policy, since it is given to women regardless of their age or their husband's occupational status.  Challenges in implementation, however, deprive many widows of their entitlements. In Nepal, widows said it was difficult to get the requisite official cards to prove their citizenship and relationship to the marital family to enable them access their rights, particularly right for pension.

In fact, in all three countries' procedures and documents required to access government benefits remain complex and difficult. Widows in India revealed getting certificates to prove eligibility like economic status (BPL) or proof of residence is a big problem, especially  for  rural uneducated widows. Despite the fact that a large section of widows borrow to make ends meet, a recent study conducted over six Indian states found that just about one fourth of them managed to get recognised as living below the poverty line by the government. Similarly in Sri Lanka the loss of documents by many widows in the conflict zones, added to the challenge in accessing their entitlements.

Calling for a single window approach in dealing with widows, the study demands a realistic approach in getting government pension in these countries. Their numbers are too large to leave them fretting on the fringes of empowerment. Further, longevity  of women has caused increase in the number of  widows. India has over 34 million widows; Nepal, 498,606 and Sri Lanka, 471,429. In all three countries a large number of very young widows are bound by similar stories and common experiences — of getting no help from the government.

Identity issues
In a traditional and patriarchal society where the identity and value of a woman is determined through her husband, widowhood is much more complex than merely losing a bread-winner. Many of them have to give up wearing coloured clothes, remove ornamental symbols of their marital status, become strict vegetarians, since it is believed that eating meat arouses sexual desires and are forced to wear only white.

The discrimination does not end here. Their participation in family life or social functions is not welcomed, the mere presence of a widow is considered inauspicious in many communities. Among the more superstitious families, a widow is often blamed for the death of her husband and denied property rights. Many of them are branded as witches and are killed.

Since the word 'widow' denotes low status and discrimination, in Nepal and Sri Lanka they prefer to be called single women and not widows. Across the over half a dozen states where the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan is active, the widows are categorised as single women.

Widows are single women 
Abandoned and discarded by their families, many widows from West Bengal in India, consider the temple town of Vrindavan, in Uttar Pradesh, as their only haven. Here, they sing for their supper and beg for survival, but insist it is better than being constantly humiliated in their own homes. As pointed out by widows, they are happier in Vrindavan than in their village homes, to which, most have no intention of returning. This, despite facing the ever-present fear of physical and sexual harassment, which many widows, both young and old, are subjected to.

In Nepal, women widowed by internal conflict, struggle not only to leave their traumatised past behind but also face societal pressure to relinquish their rights. An NGO, Women for Human Rights, with its all-widows board, has been the catalyst for change in the lives of single women in Nepal. It works closely with the government.

The fate of widows in Sri Lanka is not any better. The three -decades-long armed conflict in the country has impacted many lives. Economic hardships arising from displacement and loss of family members, often sole breadwinners, have hit women the hardest, particularly the widows. Official reports put the number of conflict-affected widows as 89,000. Without marketable skills, education and resources, widows become easy prey for exploitation and abuse. In certain parts of the island country, vulnerable widows are pushed into sex trade to support their families.

Collaboration between government and civil society led to a more enabling environment for widows to claim services as well as access their land rights. Widows who were a part of this collaborative effort were more articulate, confident and aware of their rights. This was particularly so in Rajashtan where hundreds of widows who are members of the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan have got their property from in-laws and many were able to get government jobs in place of their husbands. In Sri Lanka, widows have been able to take advantage of government programmes for capacity building and skills training due to the partnership between the government and the groups working with widows. In the process, many widows like Arasamma have become agents of change in their community.

The study has recommended the setting up of an independent authority or an expert group to develop mechanisms for effective implementation and monitoring of all official schemes for widows.

Sexual needs and health services

• It is important to recognise the sexual and reproductive rights and health of widows. Widows are often sexually abused by members of their family and need medical help, says the report.
• An NGO, ARTH, which provides reproductive health services, including abortions to women in and around Udaipur, looked at the data of the 4000 women who accessed reproductive health services over 10 years. Ten of them were widows. All had come for abortion and were between 22 to 40 years. This showed the need to provide widows with comprehensive reproductive healthcare including abortion services.
• Confidentiality is essential for reproductive health services for widows. ARTH's volunteers provide free contraceptives as well as emergency contraceptive pills (ECP) to the community. Of the 1079 women who took the ECP from ARTH, six were widows and some also came for a pregnancy test. Public health services in rural areas often do not take into account the confidentiality issues. The health workers, ASHAs and ANMs, have to record the name of every woman and the village they come from for abortion or sterilisation. Widows in need of contraceptive or abortion services, fearing stigmatisation, resort to quacks or unsafe abortion methods. Confidentiality is also vital when dealing with widows living with HIV.

The writer is an environment journalist.