Vrindavan, 2016.03.30 (TOI): Union Women and Child development minister Maneka Gandhi on Tuesday laid foundation stones for construction of one of the largest homes for widows in Vrindavan. The home which will come up in 3.52 acres of land at a cost of Rs 57 crore will accommodate 1000 widows. The deadline of October, 2017 has been fixed to complete the construction.
The special home is being built under the ‘Swadhar Greh Scheme’ of the WCD Ministry. This will be the largest ever home for widows established or funded by the Government. According to a press statement issued by the Ministry, the new home is being constructed provide better living conditions to a large number of widows at Vrindavan after it was found that their conndition of widows in existing ‘Swadhar’ Home in the holy city is not satisfactory.
Addressing the gathering, Gandhi said, “Who can better understand a widow’s pain than I? I was widowed when I was a 23-year-old and my son was of just three months old, but I never lost my self-confidence and gave the best possible nurturing to my son. However, I still get scared when I think of losing my husband at a young age. I garner a lot of courage in all of you.”
She added that the thought of building the state of the art home for widows was inspired last year by the works of a Nari Shakti Puraskar awardee who used to cremate unclaimed bodies of women in Vrindavan.
Syeda Shadab Fatima, UP state minister of women and child development, said, “The government has increased the pension of widows from Rs 2000 to Rs 5,500 per month. In Vrindavan there are three homes in which 515 widows live. There are 4,500 widows in Vrindavan and the new home will be of great help in rehabilitating 1,000 of them in one go.”
The design of the Home has been prepared in consultation with HelpAge India and is also ‘old age’ friendly. It is building built by National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC). The Home will consist of ground plus three floors with the facilities of ramp, lifts, supply of adequate electricity, water and other amenities for meeting the requirement of senior citizens and persons with special challenges.
The Home, fully funded by the Central government, is being constructed at Sunrakh Bangar, Pargana in Vrindavan. The ministry under the Swadhar and short stay home scheme caters to the primary needs of shelter, food, clothing, medical treatment and care of the women in distress who are without social and economic support. The two schemes were merged as Swadhar Greh in January 2016.
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Ms. Gandhi followed the opening of the widow home by a visit to the elephant sanctuary in Fareh. She has long been an outspoken activist for animal rights in India. There are only 22,000 elephants left in the country. Of these at least 6,000 are in brutal and illegal captivity. About 600 elephants are killed every year, by starvation, beating, drowning and ill-treatment.
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