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The Ekal Nari Shakti
Sangathan ensures a woman’s right to work outside her home, keep her
children and not be coerced into marrying her deceased husband’s
kin, writes Neeta Lal on the plight of
widows in India Kamla (26) makes a pretty picture—red sari, nail polish and a bindi-embellished forehead. She hardly seems the archetypal Indian widow. But scratch the surface and she recounts how life in her native Bikaner (Rajasthan) became tempestuous after her husband’s death in a road mishap. "Two kids, ailing parents and no money had left me completely rudderless," she recalls. It was then that the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS) — an Udaipur-based NGO that works for the uplift of widows and abandoned women in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat — took Kamla under its wing. The ENSS helped her secure a pension, gave her vocational training and engaged a lawyer to ensure her right to her husband’s property. "Widows lead a marginalised existence in India," says Angoori Devi (28), an active member of ENSS, who was married off at three and widowed at 16. She recalls her harrowing existence as a widowed farm labourer with four children to raise, even as her brothers-in-law exploited her. However, after ENSS’ intervention, Angoori started a papad-making enterprise in her house with a bank loan. She now has five village women working under her. ENSS works in multifarious ways to help the cause of widows. By focussing on the lack of social justice for these women and the discrimination they suffer, the organisation ensures their right to inheritance, property and land ownership. It also ensures a woman’s right to work outside her home, keep her children and not be coerced into marrying her deceased husband’s kin. "In addition," says Sunehri Bala, a Jaipur-based ENSS activist, "through group discussions, outreach programmes and annual conventions, we sensitise people about the low status of widows and the complex negative social/economic consequences of widowhood. We also try and create a support structure for widows’ groups and empower grassroots organisations working for us." That’s certainly a lot
of good work considering that a recent study by Jaipur’s Budget
Analysis and Research Centre highlights that Rajasthan alone has
15,89,000 widows and 60,000 women abandoned by their husbands. Of
these, only a fraction—2,12,000 — receives governmental financial
assistance in the form of a monthly pension. According to Widows World-Wide, a US-based organisation, illiteracy and poor economic conditions are primarily responsible for the abysmal plight of widows in developing countries, especially those in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Besides providing vocational training and skills, the NGO provides legal guidance. It has a dedicated panel of lawyers—largely comprising women—who render their services voluntarily. According to Manjula Joshi, president, ENSS, Rajasthan, the organisation also tries to impact governmental policy by suggesting several widow welfare measures. In fact, following a memorandum given by ENSS recently to the Rajasthan state government, each child of a single mother may soon be entitled to a stipend of Rs 1,000 per annum. "It isn’t a big amount," opines Joshi. "But at least it’s a beginning." Out of a total of 14,38,000 married women in HP, 2,29,000 are widows. "As compared to 10 per cent of the total female population of Rajasthan being widowed, deserted or divorced, the HP figure is truly worrisome," adds Joshi. Currently, ENSS is addressing 20 districts in the state. Here, they have managed to expedite the pace of many government welfare schemes whose benefits were not percolating down to its beneficiaries. Apart from working closely with local government agencies, ENSS also organises annual conventions where its 35,000-odd members and activists participate to heighten the visibility of single/widowed/deserted women. Information on government schemes, social security, insurance, income generation opportunities, health, legal and other issues is also given at these annual gatherings. It also focuses on issues such as inadequate compensation from the state, domestic violence, widows’ pension, tribal self-rule, maintenance laws for separated women and property, and child rights. Shichiangmo, a spirited ENSS activist in HP, for instance, says the group has helped her bring sunshine into a lot of local women’s lives. She has managed to electrify over 100 houses in Changuth village of Lahaul through a UNDP-funded solar energy project. ENSS had initially approached local government bodies with their proposal but were turned away. However, UNDP came to their aid and thus came about the successful project. She is now focusing on helping abandoned women, who are married to ‘outside’ men. According to Shichiangmo, taking advantage of a local custom, Shorshung, which allows women to choose their own husbands, ‘outsiders’, usually government employees on temporary postings, marry local women for as long as their posting lasts. In the absence of any legal document or proof of marriage, these women are then abandoned and left to fend for themselves. "It’s a pity to see them waiting for their husbands to return. They refuse to believe they have been cheated by the men they loved," says Shichiangmo. So, she intends creating awareness among the Lahauli women so that they insist upon getting married legally. — WFS
Sit in the sun and keep cancer at bay AT last some positive health effects of sitting in the sun! Physicians have found that recreational sun exposure is apparently associated with reduced risk for cancers of the lymph system, or malignant lymphomas, German researchers report in the International Journal of Cancer. They also found that the association is stronger for some types of lymphoma than for others. However, this must still be balanced against the strong association between sun exposure and skin cancers, including melanoma, a potentially lethal cancer that can spread and be hard to treat. Reports investigating an association between ultraviolet (UV) light exposure and lymphoma risk have yielded conflicting results, the authors explain, probably because of difficulties in assessing exposure. Dr Thomas Weihkopf from Johannes-Gutenberg University, Mainz, and colleagues, therefore, examined the relationship between malignant lymphoma and lifetime exposure to UV in different settings, including outdoor leisure activities, vacations, sunbed use and occupational exposures. The investigators recruited 710 patients with malignant lymphoma from six regions of Germany and matched them with individuals drawn from population registries. Outdoor leisure and occupational activities had no statistically significant association with a lymphoma diagnosis, the results indicate. One exception was high UV exposure during outdoor leisure activities up to age 15 years, which was associated with an increased risk of lymphoma. Frequent outdoor leisure activities were also significantly associated with an increased risk of T-non-Hodgkin lymphoma and follicular lymphoma. There was a trend toward fewer lymphoma diagnoses among frequent sun bed users, the researchers note, and frequent sun bed or sun lamp use was negatively associated with B-non-Hodgkin lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. — Reuters
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