Though home to many reformers, Maharashtra continues to see archaic practices such as customs associated with widowhood. However, villages like Herwad have led the way to ban these traditions and embrace widow reforms.
During a three-day national workshop titled ‘Child and Women Friendly Gram Panchayat’, organised by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and the government of Odisha in February in Bhubaneswar, newly-elected Herwad village sarpanch Rekha Jadhav presented the success story of her village in leading the widow reforms movement in Maharashtra.
She was accompanied by the village development officer or gram sevak, Pallavi Kolekar, who was actively involved when in a historic move on 5 May 2022, the Herwad gram panchayat unanimously passed a resolution banning archaic widowhood customs such as removing mangalsutra and jodvi (toerings), wiping off her sindoor (vermillion) and breaking the bangles of the widow, and barring her from participating in social and auspicious activities.
“It was a proud moment for me to represent my village at a national forum,” said Jadhav.
“The response from other participants was overwhelming when they saw Herwad village’s success story of women’s emancipation,” Kolekar added.
The path-breaking move was initiated by social activist Pramod Zinjade who belongs to Pothre village in Maharashtra’s Solapur district. He started the campaign against widow malpractices when a friend died and his wife was forced to observe widow customs.
“Several men died during the COVID-19 pandemic in my village, including a close friend of mine. The treatment meted out to his widow was heartbreaking,” Zinjade said.
“In March last year, I submitted an affidavit to the local tehsildar stating that after my death, my wife Alka should not be subjected to any such malpractice,” he added.
Zinjade’s efforts led to several villages across Maharashtra adopting the change and banning the customs pertaining to widows, starting with Herwad in Kolhapur district.
Later, in the death centenary year of Kolhapur ruler and social reformer Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu (Shahu Maharaj), the Maharashtra government resolved to tackle the social scourge and issued a notification on 17 May 2022 asking gram panchayats across the state to ban widowhood customs.
Herwad’s Tulsabai Gaikwad became the first widow to lead the way when her husband Vishnu Gaikwad passed away on 12 May 2022.
“At present, more than 7,000 villages in Maharashtra have pledged to ban widowhood practices. Among all districts, Kolhapur registered the maximum villages that have taken the initiative. Several villages in the neighbouring state of Goa and a few in Karnataka have also pledged to initiate these reforms,” Zinjade said.
In Goa, the campaign gained momentum when Sanguem taluka’s Uguem village took the lead. In North Goa, Pernem taluka’s Dhargal and Korgao panchayats became the first to adopt resolutions banning these malpractices and Morjim, Shiroda, Dharbandora, Sacorda and Kulem-Shigao followed suit.
The campaign has continued to grow stronger in Maharashtra.
Last year, during the nine-day Navratri festival celebrated in devotion of Goddess Durga, Mangaon village in Hatkanangale taluka of Kolhapur district invited widowed women to perform the aarti for the goddess and apply haldi-kumkum wearing toe-rings that have traditionally been restricted to married women.
“In most families, widows are not allowed to participate in festivals and auspicious occasions, so this was a welcome move. In fact, gram panchayats across Maharashtra even invited widows to hoist the national flag on India’s Independence Day,” said Tulsabai’s son Balasaheb Gaikwad.
Kolhapur holds a special place in the history of social reform movements in India as the region has been the birthplace of several reformers through time. Social reformer and political leader BR Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Rajarshi Shahu had jointly organised a conference for the welfare of persons belonging to the lower castes in March 1920 in Mangaon village.
More recently, in Satara district’s Satewadi village (Khatav taluka), sarpanch Vrushali Roman organised a haldi-kumkum ceremony for the widows in the village on the auspicious occasion of Gauri-Ganpati, dedicated to Goddess Gauri, Lord Ganesha’s mother, and observed strictly by married women who dress up in all their finery, on 4 September 2022, as part of the 10-day Ganeshutsav festival.
“The programme was organised to ensure that equal treatment is meted out to widows during festivals and to further widow reforms in the village,” Roman said.
Providing another view was Herwad’s young widow Asmita Patil who lost her husband to COVID-19. Though she generally agreed with the widow reforms, she added that it should be left upon the widow to decide how she would like to grieve following her loss.
“I must be the one to decide how and for how long to grieve for my husband. Why should I be told how to express my sorrow, or if I should and for how long,” she asked.
The lead image shows Tulsabai Gaikwad, the first widow from Herwad who did not follow the widows’ rituals, with her family who have been supportive of her decisions (Photo by Manu Shrivastava)
Manu Shrivastava, a lawyer and journalist based at Mumbai. She is also the co-convenor of ‘The Woman Survivor’ initiative.
