ImpactIndiaSulabh InternationalGlobal Motherhood

If You're An Indian Widow, Your Children Could Kick You Out And Take Everything

If You're an Indian Widow, Your Children Could Kick You Out and Take Everything
VRINDAVAN, INDIA - JUNE 13: A woman poses for a portrait inside an ashram shelter for widows on June 13, 2013 in Vrindavan, India. Sulabh International launched a monthly pension scheme in Vrindavan a few months ago giving every widow Rs 2,000 per month and taking care of their health requirements. The area has become host to widows from all over India, the bulk of them from Bengal. The widows are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition, and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families, they pass their days in abject poverty, begging in the streets or outside temples. (Photo by Nicky Loh/Getty Images)
VRINDAVAN, INDIA - JUNE 13: A woman poses for a portrait inside an ashram shelter for widows on June 13, 2013 in Vrindavan, India. Sulabh International launched a monthly pension scheme in Vrindavan a few months ago giving every widow Rs 2,000 per month and taking care of their health requirements. The area has become host to widows from all over India, the bulk of them from Bengal. The widows are shunned from society when their husbands die, not for religious reasons, but because of tradition, and because they're seen as a financial drain on their families, they pass their days in abject poverty, begging in the streets or outside temples. (Photo by Nicky Loh/Getty Images)

The verandah of the Bihari temple, in Radhakund, a few kilometers away from the Hindu temple town of Vrindavan, comes alive with chants and grateful ululations at 11 o’clock every morning as widows in white saris eat free meals of lentils and rice. “If not for this meal, I would go hungry most days,” says Shakti Dasi, a widow from the northeastern Indian state of Tripura.

Dasi is among the 500 women who eat at the temple kitchen, run by Delhi-based nonprofit, Maitri. Vrindavan and Radhakund are home to around 15,000 widows, most of whom were driven from their homes by family members. “In our country, when women become widows, they cease to exist,” says Winnie Singh, executive director and co-founder of Maitri. “It is a failure not only of the government but of society at large.”

Read the whole story at world.time.com

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