A tribute to Shahu Maharaj: Kolhapur village bans ‘widow rituals’

Pune: A village in Kolhapur district in Maharashtra has shown the way in the death centenary year of social reformer king Rajarshi Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj by getting all its residents to endorse a ban on funerary practices carried out to make a woman aware she was a widow.

Herwad village in Shirol tehsil of Kolhapur district on May 4 passed a resolution banning the practice of women breaking bangles, wiping off 'kumkum' (vermillion) from the forehead and removing the mangalsutra of a widow as part of rituals that have been handed down over time, said its gram panchayat sarpanch Surgonda Patil.

He told PTI that Pramod Zinjade, founder-president of Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal in Karmala tehsil of Solapur, took the initiative and encouraged the gram panchayat to pass a resolution to ban this "insulting" way to reinforce to a woman that she was now a widow.

“We feel very proud of this resolution as it has made Herwad a torch-bearer for other gram panchayats,” Patil said.

Anjali Pailwan (35), a resident of Arjunwad village, who lost her husband in 2020, said she reached out to Zinjade after learning about the initiative.

“I told him about my painful experience of being a widow and expressed my wish to do something for women like me. To start with, from Gudi Padva, I installed 'gudi' at my house, wore all the ornaments and had 'haldi kumkum' ceremony at my house," she said.