"There are 35 million widows in India which consists 8% of the country's total female population and 73% of widows live in rural areas."
Under Women Empowerment Program (WEP) Widows Rehabilitation Aids Program of Project Life is an initiative of Department of Women and Child Welfare - Government of Gujarat (GoG), through Department of Social Defence - G0G. Project Life is an implementation agency of this particular program in Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad and Junagadh districts of Gujarat State. WEP aims to make widows of the age between 18 to 40 years self-reliant by facilitating the process of developing skills and extracting latent talent for livelihood and economic self-sustainability in various trades. WEP envisions to improve quality of life of the widows in rural Gujarat by sustainable capacity development at the grass-root level by facilitating the process of acquiring new skills for economic self-sufficiency and rehabilitation.
The situation of widows amongst the women attracts our attention. Widows especially are faced with a battery of societal taboos; the general rule of thumb is that the higher their caste, the more restrictions widows face. Traditionally when a man dies, his widow is expected to renounce all earthly pleasures. If a woman is not financially independent, she's at the mercy of her in-laws and her parents. And if they don't have the will or the resources to take care of her and her children, she's on her own.
Widowhood in Indian society is treated as a curse. Even when the Indian nation is emerging as a super economy in terms of growth, the statistics of development lies low, in terms of widow’s socio-economic position in the society. There are about 342.9 lac widows in India, comprising of nearly 8% of the total female population of the country. Ostracized by society, more than 65% of the widows remain confined to their homes and portray a picture of gloom, misery and voicelessness. They are treated as a financial drain on their families, without their husbands. A study states that in more than 41% of the households, the total income of the households falls by almost 39%, after the death of the husband. Almost 70% of the widowed households have an income of less than Rs. 600/- a month. The society does not morally permit them to get remarried. Neither are they permitted to wear jewellery or colorful clothes. Hence they are left to abject penury and exclusion.
