In an unusual style, several hundred Widows of Vrindavan on Tuesday began a three-day Diwali celebration on the bank of River Yamuna.
Marching in a procession carrying lighted ‘diya’ in their hand, they went to the ghats of the river this evening to raise awareness about its pollution.
Widows of Vrindavan, who have continued to defy the age-old traditions by celebrating not only Diwali but Holi and Raksha Bandhan, besides taking part in Durga Puja in West Bengal, lit the earthen lamps to ward off darkness in their lives. Besides lighting the colorful earthen lamps, they sang bhajans.
Around a thousand widows, mostly from West Bengal, live in Vrindavan for decades. Earlier treated as “inauspicious”, they were not allowed to take part in rituals, till NGO Sulabh International took a keen interest in their upliftment. All the seven ashrams in Vrindavan have been decorated tastefully with lights and earthen lamps for Diwali.
Widows in these ashrams are being looked after by NGO Sulabh International, which is taking care of their health and day-to-day requirements. “Sulabh will continue with its nationwide campaign for the welfare of widows,” NGO’s founder Bindeshwar Pathak said. Pathak said he intended to draft a bill and hand it over to the Parliament to improve the plight of widows, who are abandoned by their families and urged all political parties to support the proposed bill drafted by him.