Vrindavan: widows play Holi with colours, gulal

About 1000 widows, shunning the shackles of social stigma, today played Holi with colours and gulal at 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 at the 200-year-old Ashram.
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 kg of gulal and gallons of water colours on each other. Last year, these widows had played Holi with flower petals.

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. The organisation looks after a thousand widows living in five ashrams here.
As part of Holi celebrations, Sulabh also organised traditional dance programme "Raas-Leela" and other events for them at widow ashrams.