Two Maharashtra villages crack the whip on regressive widowhood rituals

Two village gram panchayats in Maharashtra set an example when they became the first in the country to pass a resolution outlawing the old and dehumanising rites associated with widowhood.

The gram panchayat of Herwad village in Shirol tehsil was the first to unanimously pass the resolution, followed shortly by its neighboring village of Mangaon in Hatkanangle tehsil (both tehsils are located in Kolhapur district).

Henceforth, age-old customs like removing a widow’s mangalsutra, not allowing them to wear vermillion or sindoor, breaking her bangles, and ostracising her from the society will not be allowed in these villages.

Taking note of the historic example, Maharashtra’s Rural Development and Labour Minister Hasan Mushrif issued a circular recently, asking other village panchayats in the state to follow the Herwad model. “Old, ill practices should not have any place in a science-oriented era,” Mushrif said. “Other gram panchayats in the state should also pass resolutions like the one passed by Herwad.”

Instead of implementing an outright, statewide ban, the government circular asks gram panchayats (in the state) to undertake initiatives in their respective villages to spread awareness about the issue of treating widows differently than other women.

Speaking with The Federal, Shiv Sena spokesperson Manisha Kayande said awareness programs are the need of the hour. “These social stigmas are so strong that there needs to be a lot of change in the thinking of women itself. Once they become widows, they completely go into a shell. The women need to be educated and informed that it is their right to go on living with the same dignity they did before they were married. Of course, they can put bindi or kumkum. Customs such as chopping a widow’s hair off are gone now, but other traditions like forcing her to wear dull clothes and not allowing her to attend social functions… need to be erased,” Kayande said.

The Herwad village has set a revolutionary example, but it will need a lot of help from NGOs and the government to take the message elsewhere, she added.

And what about the way men look at widowhood? Experts say that needs to undergo reformation too, since the root of these age-old rites is patriarchal in nature. “When we speak about changes that need to be brought in women’s lives, we are also talking about changes required in the male mentality,” said Kayande. “But this is more of a woman strengthening woman situation. From what I have seen, it’s mostly women who build these adverse circumstances for other women by not inviting a widow to an auspicious function….in rural areas, men don’t think so much about whether a woman is married or not, but it is the women who are more into this…”

Pramod Zinjade, who heads a social welfare organisation named after reformist Mahatma Phule in Solapur, told PTI that seven more villages have followed in Herwad’s footsteps.

At the same time, Zinjade said that other widows who disfigure a deceased man’s wife, as well as relatives who play the role of mute spectators watching it happen, and the villagers who take part in the funeral should be held guilty for humiliating the widow. The women who perform these actions should be punished with three months to a year in jail and a fine of Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh to be imposed upon them.

“Mere resolutions will not be good enough and a legal sanction to end the regressive practices is the need of the hour,” he said.

The untimely death of several young men in the last two years during the COVID-19 pandemic is what triggered Herwad’s historic decision, says Sarpanch Shrigonda Patil. “Henceforth in our village, no woman would have to undergo the painful rite of widowhood,” he told the Indian Express.