NEW DELHI: While widows of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots display exemplary courage and dignity in dealing with their trauma even to years later, the psychological: are more evident among their children.
Majority of these children do not go to school and have turned wayward. Their biggest wound is the loss of their father. This has in ‘stilled in them a deep sense of insecurity, and above all they suffers from the stigma of living in a widow’s or a “no man” colony. The manner in which their fathers were massacred has impinged on their psyche and made them fatalistic.
A report prepared by four members of the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) on the survivors of the 1984 Delhi riots, records the intrepidity with which the widows have dealt with the long years of adversity, the problems which stem from single motherhood, and the trauma faced by their children.
Pertinently, this report entitled “Ten years of widowhood” is the first in a series on crucial areas ‘deserving public attention,” The IWPC intends publishing and circulating at least five such papers each year.
‘The four member’s team which prepared the first report comprises Manini Chatterjee, Ms., Harminder Kaur, Ms. Manimala and Ms. Ritambhara Shastri. These journalists visited Tilak Vihar where 900 widows have settled. Over a period of four days, they spoke to a cross section of widows on their decade long experience.
Apart from providing a deep insight to the women’s travails, the report also underscores the urgent need for extending more support toward them. All except for two. NGO’s have left this largest congregation of single women living together in a colony, The two NGOs confine their activities to community based groups which, the IWPC funds, has led to reinforcement of communal tendencies when greater interaction is called for “Both NGOs are Sikhs, Other NGOs and women’s groups could take up social and cultural active! For the children, open creative care centers, and start counseling for both women and their children,” Ms. Chatterjee said at a press conference on Saturday.
‘The report also concludes that in terms of material rehabilitation, the employment opportunities given to the widows were a positive decision. They were given jobs as poons in schools and offices. However, the dual responsibility of bring up their children and to earn a living had engendered a sense of acute guilt in the women, Majority of the women complained that their children were “getting out of hand.”
Single motherhood and the social stigma attached to it had made them soft targets of false accusations and attempted exploitation. ‘The report reveals that this sustained propaganda had a devastating impact on their sense of self-worth and the psyche of theirs ran. About 10 percent of the widows married in the first few significantly, only half marriages were success.
Article extracted from this publication >> November 4, 1994
