widow

"For almost two nights, I had to sleep at Bengaluru's Majestic bus stop with my youngest child burning up with fever. I didn’t know what to do other than crying helplessly, until someone showed me kindness. That was my turning point."

Shunned, mistreated and abandoned ⁠— widowed women in many parts of India still face regressive customs.

I grew up seeing my mother work really hard. She was all alone. Sometimes when we failed to get labour at the time of harvest, she had to bear heavy losses.

Shruti’s husband, Rajan Kamble, had been a maintenance worker at the Taj Hotel and the publication had carried a detailed story on how he had been shot by terrorists while he was ushering guests to safety.

In Jammu's Samba district, the Indian Army and Pune-based Aseem Foundation have come together to launch Olive Green Cookies, a novel venture that empowers widows of martyrs.

Daniben Makwana, a 50-year-old widow from Dhrangadhra, Gujarat, has inspired many by breaking tradition and performing the rites during her daughter's wedding

Vaishali Chandorkar Chitale and her husband Prashant Chitale have beaten the odds and made their marriage work.

Moti Meena has done what not many women of her lot would have had the courage to do – she stood up for what she believed in, shunned regressive practices imposed in the name of tradition, and refused to remain imprisoned within the four walls of her home after the demise of her husband.

Sarabjit Kaur, a 40-year old widow and pharmacist, has been working 10-hour shifts in Naushera Dhalla village in the Amritsar area, to look after those affected by the ongoing border skirmish between India and Pakistan.