WIPING OUT THE STIGMA

At long last, villages in western Maharashtra are taking it upon themselves to stop the practice of ostracising widows. Many of them are also taking steps to ensure the ladies have a better future

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

As a young widow, Sonali Potdar braved taunts from fellow students and the society at large all the time. “They would criticise me for studying despite being a widow…. I was even derided for wearing a salwar-kameez,” recalls the resident of Ambap village in Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra. Sonali’s husband Sunil passed away 15 years ago. Saddled with two small children, Sonali, now 42, soldiered on, completed her graduation and qualified to be a teacher. A journey that has been anything but easy.

Like many other regions of Maharashtra, Kolhapur, located in Maharashtra’s sugar belt with an economy fuelled by a mix of agriculture, industry, educational institutions and co-operatives, too tends to cling to hoary traditions and stifling patriarchal norms handed down the ages. Ostracising widows is one of them. A husband’s demise doesn’t just entail the symbolic removal of the mangalsutra and toe rings (ornaments that adorn married women) or the wiping off of kumkum (sindoor/vermilion), and smashing bangles. Widows are also ‘inauspicious’ and barred from attending religious and social gatherings like weddings and birth celebrations and even the aarti during the Ganesh festival. The ‘seclusion’ extends to denial of job opportunities and property rights and, in some cases, even abuse and exploitation.