They’re belittled, ostracized, called bad omens, and often treated as public sex objects: a life most poor Indian widows have been subjected to for many years. There are an estimated 47 million widows in India. And for those living in rural India, life is still a living Sati
Kalangarai Foundation widows Meet 2010
But for the widows of Nagapattinam, a coastal town in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, life seems to have changed for the better. They’ve found a saviour in Father Paul Michael. Father Paul and his team came to Nagapattinam as Kalangarai Foundation volunteers when Tsunami hit the coastal town in December 2004.
Once through with the immediate relief such as food, shelter and medical assistance to the victims, Kalangarai initiated a door-to-door survey to assess the number of people to be rehabilitated. And it was during this time they realised that Nagapattinam had been a home to over 85 thousand suffering widows and deserted women.
Father Paul Michael
“Every fourth house had a widow,” recollects Father Paul. “With little kids to look after, these women were begging for food and money almost everyday. Also no one in these villages was ready to employ them. They wouldn’t lend them any money because of their biased opinion that widows can’t afford to repay the loan. We decided it was time that these women received some help.”
And that’s how Kalangarai started its ‘Movement for the Livelihood Rights of Widows & Deserted Women’. They formed self-help groups of 18 to 20 women in each of the 87 villages. And each group had a bank account opened in the name of its two group heads.
Sivagami, now financially independent
“We lent 3000 to 10000 Indian rupees (US$60 to 200) to these groups. And we encouraged them to set up small businesses like Idli tiffin (rice cakes) shop, fish, fruit and vegetable stores, a flour grinding mill, and selling milk.”
Paul tells me the story of 42-year-old Sivagami who was married off in her teens. Soon after her two children were born, her husband became an alcoholic. Coming home drunk each day he would beat Sivagami, and once he almost killed her by attacking her with a knife. He died a few years later. Sivagami, now a widow, was shunned by her relatives and was left to take care of her two teenage children. She took up whatever small odd jobs she could find to feed and educate them. Kalanagarai lent her 10,000 rupees, and she bought a cow and started selling milk to a local coperative, and now earns a regular monthly income of 2700 rupees.
A Kalangarai SHG leader motivates her team
Sivagami is just one of the 1600 widows Kalangarai has helped so far. Paul hopes that soon they will be able to reach out to all the 87000 widows of Nagapattinam.
Paul and his organization may not be able to erase the social stigma associated with widows in India. But they have definitely helped them gain that financial independence needed to stand up and face it.
Photos: Kalangarai Foundation
