In India, as in many developing countries there is no national pension scheme, although some states have (derisory) pensions for destitute widows. Creating a pension scheme for “destitute widows” has sometimes encouraged relatives to abandon the widow to ensure her eligibility under such schemes.
Inheritance
The 1956 Hindu Succession Act granted property rights to Hindu women. It has remained mainly a paper right. Muslim women in India on paper have better inheritance rights. Many widows are victims or murder, rape, violence and mental cruelty due to inheritance and property disputes.
In 1996 the State of Maharashtra amended the 1956 law to make daughters equally eligible to inherit along with sons. This enactment was intended to combat sex bias and extreme dowry demands.
Information on enforcement please.
Violence
In 1987 Roop Kanwar, an 18 year old Hindu widow was immolated on her husband's funeral pyre as a “sati”. In spite of a spate of Acts to outlaw domestic violence ( dowry death, bride burning, sati, and feticide) in the 1980s no one has ever been prosecuted for this murder.
Vishaka and others v State of Rajasthan. (Supreme Court of India. 1995)
A writ was lodged with the Supreme Court on behalf of the victim of an alleged gang rape directing the State to develop guidelines for the prevention of sexual abuse. The terms proposed were in part drawn from CEDAW's General Recommendation 19 dealing with violence against women.
At the 1994 Indian Widows Conference in Bangalore, several widows gave evidence of the torture they had suffered at the hands of their male relatives, and the lack of protection from police and courts.
Domestic violence to widows remains a neglected issue in spite of many Indian women's organisations taking up the cause of bride burning and dowry deaths.
The 1983 Criminal Law Amendment Act gives some scope to action on violence to widows but legislative reforms have yet to break the cycle of violence to Indian women.
Legislation
The Guild of Service in India with the assistance of a group of senior lawyers and retired judges is planning a programme of investigation into the implementation of the 1984 Family Courts Act which was enacted to provide a more efficient and accessible justice system to uphold women's rights. A decade and half since the legislation, very few states have in fact set up family courts which potentially could bring judicial relief to widows whose legal rights to inheritance of their dead husband's property are ignored by unscrupulous male relatives.
WIDOWS' CONFERENCES
At least 3 very important conferences took place in India in 1999 .
One in Delhi, through the Guild of Service, one in Calcutta organised by the Joint Action of the National Association of Women, and one in Rajasthan, attended by 500 widows, organised by APARAJITA, the Umbrella Organisation for several state widows' action groups.
The recommendations of these conferences covered issues such as pensions, the need for registration of both husband and wife as owners of land, tighter enforcement of penal laws criminalising violence to widows within the family and the community; credit and loan schemes; and the need to use
all means to change social stereotyping. APARAJITA has sent a petition to the central government demanding changes in the law and the monitoring of enforcement mechanisms.
Reports of these meetings can be obtained either through EWD, or directly from:
Guild of Service (Delhi Branch). Mrs V Mohini Giri email: [email protected]
Joint Action Mrs Jyotsna Chatterji [email protected]
APARAJITA Mrs. Laksmi Murthy [email protected]
Here she outlines the often forgotten plight of the widows in many parts of the developing world.
The girl-child in many less developed countries of the South, may survive various hazards: female feticide, infanticide or neo-natal death from neglect, and she may well face others such as female genital mutilation, dowry death, childbirth and illegal abortion. But she is very likely to spend much of her life as a widow, in harrowing circumstances.
Widowhood is overwhelmingly a woman's problem. In India there are three times as many widows as widowers. In one African country it is estimated that 67 per cent of all adult women are widows.
Child-marriage, polygamy, the wide age-gap between men and women, war and increasingly the scourge of AIDS has greatly increased the numbers of widows, especially young widows. Women outnumber men among elderly populations almost everywhere, and the majority of these are widows less able, as in the past, to call upon children to support them in their final years.
When a woman commits sati in rural India, there is a public outcry all over the world. Yet little interest is shown in the misery endured by millions of Indian widows every day.
In widowhood, a woman joins a category of women among the most marginalized, and invisible. There is little research to inform public opinion or goad governments and the international community to action. Widows hardly figure in the literature on poverty or development.
Certainly in India and in many countries in Africa, and probably elsewhere, irrespective of religion, tribe, income, class, education, or geographical location, millions of widows are deprived of their universally acknowledged human right to shelter, food, clothing, and discriminated against in relation to health, work, dignity, and participation in the community life.
In Africa it is a common occurrence for the dead husband's family to "chase her off" her homestead, grabbing all the household property, even the children. Accident compensation, life insurance policies, pensions can all be seized with impunity. In South Asia, a widow may be secluded within her brother-in-law's household to become a victim of exploitation, a domestic slave.
The traditional obligations of the extended family to protect the widow appear to be weakening, partly under the pressures of poverty. Structural adjustment programmes and foreign debt have drastically affected the poor widow's access to the essential services.
From all over the developing world there is evidence that millions of widows and their children live in conditions of acute insecurity, deprivation, and even violence. Civil laws of inheritance, customarylaws relating to marriage, inheritance, land ownership and child custody, and patriarchal attitudes to women in general, appear to sanction such violation of women's human rights.
The treatment of widows is clearly discrimination as defined in the UN Women's Convention on Discrimination Against Women, (CEDAW), giving governments an obligation to address this issue.
Under the Convention, governments are required to remove all laws that discriminate against women because of their sex. They must also use all means to modify or eliminate traditional practices harmful to women and children.
Discriminatory inheritance and land ownership laws, constraints to remarriage, degrading and often life-harming mourning rites, traditions such as levies on widow-inheritance, and lack of access to credit, training and work are some of the matters requiring immediate attention by governments who have ratified the Convention.
This type of human rights abuse is not only most serious and widespread, but also has the gravest consequences for the children of widows, denied health, welfare, education and therefore ill-equipped to contribute to their country's development.
Indeed, beyond such human rights issues lay many often profound consequences of such discrimination. One of these is of direct relevance to population growth.
Fear of an unsupported widowhood is often so great that women feel a need to have many children to ensure that there are adult sons to look after them in old age. One widowed mother of 12 children explained her reluctance to use family planning methods: "It could get rid of the one good son who would care for you". Family Planning programmes might have greater success if social and economic policies were shaped to improve the widow's status.
The neglect of female children is another relevant issue. Studies in India have shown that the desire to have at least one adult son is much greater among women than among women. In widows families, as much as in all poor families, girl children risk neglect in favour of their brothers. The poor Indian widow weeps when her husband dies not just for herself but for the dowryless daughters who must be married off as soon as possible, often to older men, so that they in turn become young and "inauspicious" widows themselves.
In Africa, education is the first expense to be scrapped when a woman loses the male breadwinner. Education is expensive. Sons take priority over daughters. And there are other cultural reasons why widows tend to keep their daughters at home.
Migration is another consequence of widowhood. Many widows in rural area, unable to cultivate land or manage the cash crop without male assistance - and often in debt after nursing a sick husband - are forced to migrate to the town in search of cash. Migration is full of risks to unaccompanied women and their children. In the Mathari valley shanty town, in Nairobi, daughters of AIDS widows as young as 11 or 12 get involved in sex-work in order to buy food for their sick and dying mothers. Policies need to be formulated that will support widows as farmers in their villages, and guarantee relevant education and a future for their sons and daughters in the locality where they were born. Access to credit and extension services, loans to start small businesses, appropriate technology and other innovative schemes to assist widows and their children to conserve and cultivate need donor support.
The stigma attached to AIDS makes life for the widow and children of an afflicted family particularly hard. The widow's in-laws may blame her for the husband's death. They may try and force her to marry or co-habit with a brother-in-law. She risks transmitting infection or receiving it. She may not be able to remarry. She and her children may suffer abuse. Prostitution is sometimes the only alternative to starvation, in spite of the risks. If already sick, she will be desperately concerned about the future of her children. Schemes developed in Uganda by The Aid Support Organization, (TASO)have helped thousands of Ugandan women to "go public" about HIV, find work and dignity, and help other widows. But discrimination against widows in this context is severe.
Another aspect of widowhood relates to refugees, 80 per cent of whom are women and children. A high proportion of these women are widows, or women who do not know for certain whether their husbands are dead or alive. They may face multiple problems, in addition to the burden of bereavement and exile. Sexual harassment and rape during flight and in the camps are common.
Even in stable societies, the fragmentation of traditional family support systems, coupled with lowered fertility and longer life expectancy often leaves elderly widows in precarious circumstances if there are no relatives to care for them.
Almost everywhere in the developing world, the poor status of widows must be seen in the context of patriarchal institutions -the custodians and interpreters of civil and customary law are male legislators, judges, administrators, police and traditional court assessors. "Living custom" and religion are likewise interpreted and enforced by male village chiefs, or religious leaders.
Governments, with few exceptions, have "reserved" in their reports to CEDAW, the subject of customary family law. Nevertheless, the negative aspects of custom need sensitive analysis.
Responding to a CEDAW questionnaire on violence against women, Ghana was the only country to identify the degrading treatment of widows as an example of unjustified brutality. Without empowerment through economic independence and self-help organizations, changes in the law will have little effect. What then can be done?
Law reform, social support and the empowerment of widows are all urgently needed, as is research and public debate at all levels.
Women's Bureaux in various Southern and East African countries are now proposing changes in Inheritance Law and the Penal Codes to give more protection to widows and daughters. Women and Law in Southern Africa's research project (WLSA), has published a series of constructive research papers analysing widows' rights in the context of African customary law, the Women's Convention and the African Charter on Peoples' Rights. The International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), does useful work in many jurisdictions, taking widows' complaints of harassment, robbery and violence to court, and educating women about their rights and the importance of wills.
But widows themselves must be the agents of change. Networking between national widows' associations, establishing branches in every village, slum and refugee camp with channels of communication to the relevant Ministries, would ensure a two-way flow of information and provide a basis for much needed research.
Methods of collecting social and economic statistics must be redesigned, so that better information on the condition of widows' lives is obtained.
The neglect of widows and their families causes great misery, not just for themselves but for society as a whole. It is vital that this subject is introduced on to the agenda of three great world conferences on Population and Development, on Social Development and on Women, which will take place over the next 18 months - and that this forms part of the real-life agenda for change as the millennium is approached. ·
There are more than 25 million widows in India, according to the 1981 census. Indeed, the proportion of widows in the female population - about 8 per cent - is comparable to that of agricultural labourers in the male population. Among women aged 60 and over, the proportion of widows is some 60 per cent.
Despite this, and the knowledge that widows are a particular disadvantaged social group, few attempts have been made to study the way they actually live.
Upon widowhood, most widows in rural India are subject to economic decline, social isolation and related deprivation. They are restricted about how and where they live, and in terms of inheritance, remarriage, employment and the kind of social support they can receive from relatives and the community.
Findings of an intensive field study in seven states in India shows that the Indian widow tends to be a highly marginalized person. She typically receives very little support from persons other than her own children, and even when she lives with one or several of her adult sons she remains highly vulnerable to neglect. Further, her ability to engage in income-earning activities of her own is severely restricted, partly due to various patriarchal norms such as patrilineal inheritance and the division of labour by gender. The consequences as far as one can tell from the limited evidence available, must be serious in terms of poor health and high mortality rates.
This is consistent with the traditional perception of Hindu widows as inauspicious and potentially suspect women who, ideally, should lead a life of austerity devoted to the memory of their husband. This ideological influence, however, may be less crucial than the simple fact that widows are often seen as an economic burden.
Right: A poor Indian widow feeds her children.
The most effective way of ensuring the social protection of Indian widows is perhaps to help them to be recognized as persons who have something important to contribute to the household economy: for example, by protecting their property rights or by promoting their economic activities. For those widows who do not own property and cannot be gainfully employed (due to age or infirmity), the provision of pensions is an obvious measure.
The research project has found that there is already a substantial scope for improving the living conditions of widows. For instance, in most states of India, pension schemes of some kind do exist on paper, but they have a negligible coverage and impact. However, the government is unlikely to give adequate priority to the social protection of widows in rural India in the absence of public pressure. Putting state-based social security measures into operation may require a great deal of effort on the part of non-governmental organizations. Much could be done without delay to bring about a more ambitious, efficient, and equitable implementation of these pension schemes.
Similar observations apply with reference to land rights. Helping widows to assert and defend their basic property rights is another field where much could be achieved through public activism within the existing legal and policy framework, without waiting for the initiative and good will of the state. Several non-government organizations have helped in the current research and have agreed to undertake and document alternative measures in support of widows, including negotiating government pensions for eligible widows, securing property rights for widows, supporting the employment and incomes of widows, and promoting the social reintegration of widows in their communities.
Marty
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Nevertheless, millions of Third World widows, disinherited, evicted, victims of violence, poverty, property-grabbing, and marginalisation continue to remain outside the remit of all the above. They struggle to survive without legal protection, legal rights or legal aid. Of all women, they are the least empowered to use new laws.
In spite of the emerging international consensus that gender equality, including specific attention to women in development, is key to achieving sustainable, people-centred development, the poverty, oppression and discrimination which, cross-culturally, is a common feature of widows' lives, remain neglected.
As we move towards the millennium, war, civil strife, and disease (AIDS) and natural disasters increase creating more millions of widows: child widows, young widows, old widows and orphans. Over and above the practical and emotional difficulties these new widows confront they face the terrible deprivation of their basic fundamental human rights – shelter, food, health care, employment, education of children, access to the justice system, legal protection of person and property – and often life itself.
A World of Widows by Margaret Owen, published by Zed Books Ltd in 1996
This unique book is the first to provide a overview of the status of widowhood in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Neglected by social policy researchers, international human rights activists and the women’s movement, the status of the world's widows - legal, social, cultural and economic - is an extremely urgent issue given the extent and severity of the discrimination against them.
The author explores the process of becoming a widow; poverty and social security in the context of widowhood; differing laws and customs regarding widows’ inheritance; the situation of widows who remarry and issues of sexuality and health. She also looks at the needs of specific groups of widows - refugees, older widows, child widows - and widowhood in the context of AIDS. Throughout, she shows the prevalence of discrimination against widows in inheritance rights, land ownership, custody of children, security of home and shelter, nutrition and health. The book concludes with a summary of widowhood as a human rights issue and an overview of widows themselves organizing for change.
"A fascinating and very detailed book . . . . essential reading for anyone concerned with human rights and development issues." Kate Young, WOMANKIND Worldwide
The book was researched with support from Planet 21 and the Swedish International Cooperation Agency (SIDA)
Nuptiality
Constraints/Obstacles
- Exclusion of women in governmental initiatives.
- Lack of sensitivity to the problems faced by women arising from conflict.
- Weakness of human rights groups and civil society to pressurise both sides to refrain from human rights violations.
- Lack of objective data and information on the problem.
- Subjective and uninformed reporting by media.
- Lack of full co-operation from Bhutan on repatriation of Bhutanese refugees
This AfterLoss helpletter provides special support for widows and widowers by addressing loneliness, the vulnerability of widowhood and major adjustments. One section answers questions most frequently asked by widows and widowers in bereavement classes. This special issue provides sound guidance and genuine comfort to the widowed.
Pricing
"The present study was taken up in the district of Dharwad with an aim to evaluate the problems faced by the widows. The study also made an attempt to assess the extent of deprivation faced by them. The study is exploratory in nature, and also makes an attempt to test the significance of relationships between independent, infrastructural and independent variables with dependent variables like deprivation in economic, social, psychological and cultural fields.
"The present study points out the need for an indepth analysis on a larger scale in respect of widowhood as a social role, and of sexual involvement of widows. The study is successful to the extent of pinpointing certain requirements like tackling the problem of widows with determination and jointly by women; development of widows' profile; need for follow up and vocational training for illiterate and poor widows, and coordinating the efforts of government with the heads of religious institutions and voluntary organization in changing the attitudes of the people according to the changing times and needs of society." No. 15278
thesis
hindu widow remarriage act 1866 came in India to provide a legal right of widows marriage and legacy right to their children. In Nepal, the Civil Code 2020 has given right to widow remarriage. Presently, early aged widows is gradually decreasing, mainly due to the improvement in health facilities, increase in age of marriage and lesser age gaps of married couples.
Similarly, there was a practice of child marriages in the past( and in most urban areas presently also). Compared to males, females were married at an early age. Early marriages, especially for females, were guided by religious dogmas. " a father should give his daughter before she reaches puberty, that is before her menustrate period. If a father does not give his daughter before her first menustral cycle, the ancestors will drink the monthly menustral blood. According to the Smriti Puran, following is the list of girls age that are categorized in accordance with the priorities given in marriages:
a) "Nagnika" or naked, i.e. a period before girls breasts emerge
b) "Gauri" or eight year old girl
c) "Rohini" or nine year old girl
d) "Kanya" or the ten year old girl
e) "Rajaswala" or the girl above 10 years of age.
Discriminatory inheritance and land ownership laws, constraints to remarriage, degrading and often life-harming mourning rites, traditions such as levies on widow-inheritance, and lack of access to credit, training and work are some of the matters requiring immediate attention by governments who have ratified the Convention.
This type of human rights abuse is not only most serious and widespread, but also has the gravest consequences for the children of widows, denied health, welfare, education and therefore ill-equipped to contribute to their country's development.
