Mommies Paradise

CNN ran a story today shedding light on the some 40,000 widows in India who have been shunned by society and are forced to loiter and beg for simple scraps to sustain their lives. Simply because their husbands have died. These widow’s own families have ostracized them and society as a whole sees them as bad luck.

Some people are trying to help these women:

One woman, a widow herself, is working for change. Dr. Mohini Giri has formed an organization called the Guild of Service, which helps destitute women and children.

Giri’s mother was widowed when Giri was 9 years old, and she saw what a struggle it was. Then, Giri lost her husband when she was 50, enduring the social humiliation that comes with being a widow. At times, she was asked not to attend weddings because her presence was considered bad luck.

“Generally all widows are ostracized,” she says. “An educated woman may have money and independence, but even that is snatched away when she becomes a widow. We live in a patriarchal society. Men say that culturally as a widow you cannot do anything: You cannot grow your hair, you should not look beautiful.”

She adds, “It’s the mind-set of society we need to change — not the women.”

Seven years ago, Giri’s organization set up a refuge called Amar Bari, or “My Home,” in Vrindavan. It has become a refuge for about 120 of India’s widows. Giri’s organization is set to open a second home, one that will house another 500 widows.

But as she even says, this is a drop in the bucket compared the thousands and thousands of elderly women who are left in the streets to die. These women are lured to the town of Vrindavan in the hopes that dying here will release them from the life and death cycle and thus end all of their suffering.

Imagine that you believe in reincarnation and you’re current life is so tragic that you don’t even have faith that a new life will offer some hope.

The tragedy of these types of stories is staggering and the populations of victims in these situations are always women. It is shocking that as a world view, women are worthy of scorn and abandonment for simply outliving their partners, even after a lifetime of care-giving. America is not immune to this same type criticism albeit on a less glaring level, until you really do some homework.

Not shockingly, the comments section of this article was rife with (presumably) Indian males claiming the story was simply a pack of lies or howls of “What About teh Mens? Now We Will Never Marry!” Fucktards!

Yes, yes. They must be lies. How could suck atrocities actually exist? Well, how indeed?