Mother's Day Reminder.. sad :(.

Mother's Day (5-11-14) in the USA today.  A day to honor your MOMMY. Sadly, not all mom's today will be given hand drawn crayon picture from their babies or breakfast in bed. Certainly not in this STRANGE SPOT!   Vrindavan is sadly known as the City of Widows.  It is estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 widows reside here alone. Many of the women haved lived in this town over 30 years.  The woman are basically forced to sing religious hymns for up to 8 hours a day in bhajanashrams (places of worship apparently run be wealthy religious organizations).  The women are given a cup of rice and a bit of lentils for chanting 3 hours,  then they must work one additional 3 hours shift.  Over 90% of the widows arrive from Bengal not speaking Hindi (the language of the area).  Some do receive a very small pension from the government while living in private bhajanashrams, local rented rooms and many literally on the streets or by the river.   As the women receive little to no money,  many beg in the early morning and evening.  Unfortunately, many of the bhajanashrams are corrupt and take what little pension money the widows receive from the government.  Today, the Indian government is making steps to help these women and building more shelters.  Hindu tradition does not allow for upper caste widows to remarry and are often abandoned by their families after the death of the husband.  Indian women after marriage live with their husband's family.  Once widowed,  their in-laws may view the widow as a burden and a threat in respect to inheritance of family money or property.   Traditionally,  widows would often through themselves into their husband's funeral pyres to solve this problem.  The women's ages range commonly from the 40s and above.  Possibly much much younger as depicted in the movie "Water".  Indian women are often married as young as 10 years old. Some women live on the streets of Vrindavan voluntarily.  They believe that the God has delivered a punishment in the form of their widowhood life.  They also believe they must respect their destiny in this life or once again, they will be reborn to live the life of a widow.  I wonder why their children don't rescue them from this fate...  Why not change this tradition,  they stopped women from jumping into the fires.. why not this?

 

 (the movie "Water".. wonderful.  Try Netflix or Hulu)