Debt trap looms over ‘village of widows’

Ajay Ramola in Rudraprayag

A look at young Savitri Tiwari’s face would tell you her gods have left. She can’t forget that terrifying day three years back on June 16-17 when monster flash flood struck her Dewali Bhanigram village. She was 8-month pregnant and a mother of an infant. “On June 17, I was devastated; I lost my husband who worked as a temple priest at Kedarnath shrine, my house, and I didn’t know whatever happened to other male members of the house.” Like her there were other 54 women whose men perished. Out of the over 4,000 villages destroyed, Dewali Bhanigram became a ‘village of the widows.’ With limited resources and charities that would exhaust soon, these women run the risk of falling into the debt trap.

There is no male member left in Savitri’s house. Gudia her sister-in-law, is left with two children, Hemlata and Biresh. Hemlata is keen to join a junior nursing maid (JNM) training institute and Biresh will be completing his fourth year as pharmacist in Dehradun.

The monthly donation of Rs 2,000 per individual that comes to Rs 6,000 per family from Sulabh international and Rs 1,000 given by an NGO, Dhadh, is the only help they are getting on a monthly basis. When all this stops, these women don’t know how they would run their homes. Like so many tragedies, this one came with a brutal backlash: a social stigma of widowhood, an impoverished present and a mocking government compensation that builds these women’s world only in the air. Since 2013, most women spent the entire Rs 7 lakh relief on rebuilding their houses and feeding their family. “When I was mourning, other people from nearby villages rushed to the roadside to collect whatever was handed out by NGOs,” recalls Savitri. “I had a two-year-old child in my lap and a baby in my womb. So I couldn’t move out.” 

Many women like Savitri don’t want any charity; they want a job. Savitri has started working in a weaving centre being run by an NGO in her village and earns a meagre sum. A mother of three children, Beena Devi Sharma, too, faces a similar fate in her Lamgaundi village. The animal husbandry department provided her a Sahiwal mix-breed cow, but it remains ill most of the time. The milk yield has also dropped, says Beena. “I have a son and two daughters who are studying. I am worried about their future as I don’t have any bank balance in my name,” says Beena.

Asha Rana, another widow from nearby Kabilda village, says some NGOs responded with an offer of a cow and a flour mill but were asking half of the amount upfront. “I am yet to clear the debt for the treatment of my father-in-law who suffered paralysis in the natural calamity. I had no money for the offer,” said Asha. Garhwal MP, Lt. General BC Khanduri (retired) had declared Dewali Bhanigram as a model village, but it has failed to serve any purpose, both social and financial. Ganesh Tiwari, a panchayat member, says most announcements made by the MP are yet to see the light of day. “The road to Dewali Bhanigram has not been constructed. The Rs 5 lakh meant for village development never came,” he said.