By Jyoti Punwani
The widows of Vrindavan periodically make news. Mostly it’s their sufferings that get written about, the neglect from close family members that drives them to Vrindavan to lead lonely lives, bereft of joy. Some time back, this mould was broken as reports came in about them playing Holi, the festival of colours that Vrindavan is identified with, but which these women had been forbidden from enjoying by custom.
But as these reports show, from asserting their right to happiness, the widows of Vrindavan and Varanasi are now asserting their rights to the privileges of citizenship, to which they are as entitled as anyone else. Given that women barely get a mention in election reports, these two reports in two national papers are “news” in more ways than one.
