The Social Reformer working for Widows in India- Dr. Laxmi Gautam!

Light a candle for this great Indian hero

As the youth of India, how aware are you about the way widows in general are treated in India? Any ideas? I guess no! Well, frankly where as a society, India might have evolved from the issues of widow remarriage and the horrendous and inhuman social norms of “Sati”, where a widow was burnt alive in her husband’s pyre, things are not really different, rather much more difficult for an abandoned widow in the nation till date.

Even in the current times when he speak loud of terminologies like gender equality and positions of power being accredited to the women gender, there are the windows that are still ostracized and abandoned by their families till date. While the television media as well as the movies that we all have grown up watching have portrayed widows as a person who are draped in white saris, bare footed, with shaved heads and living a life without any luxuries leave alone having food with any non vegetarian element or any kind of specialty, things are not really any different in every nook and corner that you can see. With the age old belief that once the husband is dead, the women folks will denounce all good things in life just to express their sadness is just one of the ways they have been thought to think like.

While this very thought is indeed as disturbing, there is a lady in Vrindavan, who was shaken by the lives of these abandoned widows and resolved to fight for their better living conditions and betterment. The unsung hero we are talking about is none other than Dr. Laxmi Gautam who is also an academician and was the Deputy Mayor of her region for a short stint in her life.

You might be thinking what made us portray her as a national hero, right? What can we say of a woman who singlehandedly without any prior support is trying to make the lives of widowed women better in her own small ways so that these women can smile and live a respected life even though their so- called families have denounced them and does not acknowledge their existence?

Before going into the details of what Dr. Laxmi Gautam has done for the improvement of the widow population, there are certain facts that I feel that all of you should be made aware of first.

• Vrindavan is a pilgrimage site which is home to thousands of abandoned widows from all over the nation and is also doted as the “City of Widows” by many.
• The number of widow population in India is the largest accounting up to 33 million, where only 3% of them are men and rest 10% females!
• Till date, only 10% of the widows get remarried once more, even when our society is a so- called progressive one!
• As you understand that India is a patriarchal society, which bestows social status to a women only when she is with a man and thus, in absence of one her existence is at question and slowly she suffers a social death which is more painful than a real one.
• You would be surprised to note that Vrindavan alone hosts an estimate of over ten thousand widows who struggle to live their daily lives. While the young widows are forced to take up prostitution, the older ones are left with no other choice other than begging or chanting for alms from the tourists and the pilgrims. The older widows lives are encircled only within the temples and nothing more.

While, Dr. Laxmi Gautam was growing up in this environment where everywhere she could see, she would find widows failing to get access to the basic amenities and necessities of life, she felt concerned and since then have been working for the betterment of the living conditions of these widowed women in India.

As a woman herself, Dr. Laxmi Gautam understands the sufferings of women who suffer the wrath of the conventional and the age old social taboos which plague the Indian subcontinent to date and thus her only motto in life is “Mattayon kee seva” or to serve the widows.

Laxmi being a teacher at the Vrindavan College imparts all her earnings to the widows by buying them snacks, milk, clothing and food that she can. She is also known to help the widows in seeking medical attention from nearby government hospitals who ensure that they get treated immediately as well.

While there are cases where the widows are found dead and lying around on the streets, this social reformer takes time and even cremates their bodies with respect with all the money that she has. One thing that is really commendable about this heroic woman lies in the fact that she has never and will not accept any donations and she says that her sons help out in times of financial crisis as they have been brought up well and knows the importance to help others in need.

Dr Laxmi Gautam has till date helped the widows with not only food, but have helped the abandoned ones with home in a center located in Rajasthan and also keeps the women’s spirits up by providing the much needed emotional support as well. Till date, even though Dr. Laxmi Gautam does not recount the number of dead widows she has cremated but the number of non- claimed ones she has helped with is something over a whooping hundred.

While this woman due to the contributions to the society can indeed be called the true living hero of India at the moment, it is our pride that we can acknowledge and salute her for the great work that we only get stuck at with talking.

Opting to help others might have cropped up at least once in our lives, but the fact remains that everything stays at the preparation phase without much attempt. This woman is thus different who have seen the suffering and is trying to make the lives of these widowed women to the extent that she can.

Go on Doctor, hats off!

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