Sreelatha Menon: The lesser widows

Widows less than 40 years old do not qualify for assistance under govt schemes, often putting their survival at stake

Saathi, a landless Muslim widow in her 20s, is a mother of two and belongs to Hatra village in Badan Duliya block of West Bengal’s Nadia district.

She is one of the 44 million widows in the country, according to the 2001 census. She got married when she was 12. Her husband died of what she calls a severe headache. Her in-laws drove her out the day he died and never gave her any share in his property. All she has is a mother who takes care of her seven-year-old daughter while the older daughter, now 15, is married. Had Saathi been 40 years old, she would have been entitled to government pension. Only four million widows are eligible for pension. Of them, only half get it under the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension Scheme. The amount given is just Rs 400 a month.

Saathi does not qualify. Her mother, who is hearing disabled and was abandoned by her husband years ago, is also not covered under any scheme. Saathi had few options except to marry off her older daughter and join a domestic agency which places workers, leaving her younger child with her mother.

Saathi has been working in Delhi as a domestic help for the last five years. If one were to look at the data of domestic workers agencies in the capital, a quarter of the women there are widows and more than a quarter of the widows are less than 40 years old. Sapan Mondal, whose agency employs Saathi, has 70 workers, of whom 15 are widows. Of these, seven are below 35.

India is a signatory to the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and is concerned about child mortality. However, young widows and their dependents form one of the most vulnerable sections, an issue not addressed by any government scheme.

Even the 15-point prime minister’s programme for minorities makes no mention of widows, though among Muslims in rural India, child marriage is rampant and child widowhood is common.

The government instead provides a stipend of Rs 500 for children of widows who go to ITI. Can a woman who can barely manage a meal a day educate children to the level of sending them to an ITI?

Unfortunately, poor rural widows don’t make policies and hence things do not work for them.

The only hope for rural widows could have been the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Saathi and her mother have not been able to manage a job card yet, despite requests. NREGS does not have any provision for providing 100 days work to widows.

In a country where the ruling party has been headed for most of the time by single women, first Indira Gandhi and now Sonia Gandhi, more empathy towards single women should have been reflected in government policies.

Saathi and her mother lived atop a hut for many months during last year’s floods. Her hut is still unlivable. But her below-poverty-line card is yet to get her a house under the Indira Awaas Yojana. In fact, a couple of years ago, she used to get 20 kg subsidised wheat under the Antyodaya scheme. However, her name was struck off the list.

Under the Kerala government’s Asraya programme, the poorest families are identified for giving various benefits. Only such individual attention can make programmes work for the most needy.