File photo: Widows chat outside their quarters at an ashram in Vrindavan (AFP)
Taking note of the pitiable condition of widows in Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, the Supreme Court today appointed a seven-member panel to collect data on their socio-economic condition.
A bench of Justice D K Jain directed the committee, headed by chairman of the Mathura district's Legal Services Authority, to conduct an enumeration of the widows living in the town within eight weeks.
The bench asked the committee to submit its report to it by July 25, the next date of hearing.
The bench said the committee should compile and prepare a list of widows with their respective names, ages, addresses, places of origin, reasons for being in Vrindavan and whether they had any property in their names or their husbands' in their native places.
The committee also comprises representatives of the National Commission for Women (NCW) and those from the Uttar Pradesh government, the district collector, the district medical officer and Mathura's senior superintendent of police, the bench said.
The court passed the order on a plea seeking its direction to the Centre and the state government to provide shelter and other necessary facilities to the widows in the area, who have been abandoned by their family members.
The court's directive came as per the recommendations of advocate Indira Sahni who, on behalf of the National Legal Services Authority, suggested that the court set up the committee for enumeration of widows in the religious town of Virandavan.
Earlier, the top court had sought replies from the Centre and the UP government on the plea in connection with the pitiable condition of the widows at Vrindavan, requiring immediate steps for their rehabilitation and better living.
The court had issued notices on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) highlighting the plight of the widows who have been living in Vrindavan and begging at temples and then huddling together in hovels, which they call their homes.
The NGO, in its petition, pointed out to the court that the widows, who congregate for around seven to eight hours for
bhajans, get only Rs 18 a day.
The NGO also had told the court that a majority of the 1,000-odd widows interviewed in Vrindavan by the NCW have children who do not care for them.
In a report to the top court, the statutory women's body recommended fastening of liability on the children under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.
It had said that an estimated 5,000-10,000 widows were living like beggars in
ashrams dotting the two holy towns of Mathura and Vrindavan and were being sexually exploited.
The NCW's second report to the court said that 81 per cent of these women were illiterate.