India Urged to Establish National Widows' Rights Commission to End Lifelong Injustice

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A Maharashtra-based organisation, Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal, has called upon the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to establish a dedicated National Widows' Rights Commission to address the systemic and lifelong injustices faced by widowed women in India. According to the organisation, widowed women in India suffer from social ostracisation, denial of property and inheritance rights, economic insecurity, psychological trauma, and heightened sexual vulnerability. Existing institutional mechanisms, they claim, fail to adequately address these issues. The proposal notes that despite Constitutional guarantees of equality and dignity, there is currently no exclusive statutory body that focuses on the unique and long-term vulnerabilities of widows. While women's commissions operate at the national and state levels, their broad mandate limits focused attention on widows' issues. The organisation has proposed the creation of National and State Widows' Rights Commissions, which will have the power to inquire into complaints, summon reports from authorities, and make time-bound recommendations. They also demand that the commission be empowered to suggest rehabilitation measures, financial assistance schemes, and amendments to existing laws. MPSSM president Pramod Zinjade has described the establishment of a dedicated Widows' Rights Commission as a 'constitutional necessity and moral obligation' to restore dignity, security, and human rights of widowed women. He has also written to the United Nations seeking the establishment of an International Widows' Rights Commission. In rural Maharashtra, Zinjade has been leading a campaign to eradicate evil customs related to widows, with several villages passing unanimous resolutions banning such practices.