It was a riot of colours when some 1000 odd widows, shunning the shackles of social stigma, played Holi at the 200-year-old Meera Sahabhagini Ashram here.
It was for the first time that the widows gathered in such a large number to play Holi with gulal and water colour. They poured colour on each other in the presence of a large number of tourists and followers of lord Krishna in the pilgrim town of Vrindavan.
Countering the age old social evil of widowhood, several widows have taken shelter in this holy city. It was a remarkable sight when the widows, mostly in the 70s and 80s, stooping low with age, danced and splashed more than 500 kilograms of gulala and gallons of water colours on each other.
More than 900 widows who were thrown out of their home by their family members today took a pledge against widowhood prior to the Holi celebration.
The Holi celebration was organised by Sulabh International which looks after a thousand widows living in five ashrams in Vrindavan in the light of Supreme court's directives.
The initiative was taken by Sulabh International, which is working for improving the condition of the widows and bringing them to the mainstream besides ensuring their social assimilation.
"Vrindavan Holi is an effort to free widows from the shackles of age-old tradition. Not only will the widows play Holi, they will also participate in cultural programmes," Sulabh International Founder, Bindeshwar Pathak said in a release.
last year, these widows had played Holi with flower petals, but this time they have planned to celebrate the festival of colours with gulal and get soaked in colourful festivities.
As part of Holi celebrations, Sulabh organized traditional dance programme "Raas-leela" and other events for them at widow ashrams in Vrindavan.