Vrindavan, Feb 25 (IANS) More than 1,000 kgs of gulal will be available at shelter homes here for the thousands of widows in this Uttar Pradesh holy town to celebrate Holi and break from tradition and their mundane routine.
The Holi revelries will begin March 3 with songs, dances and sprinkling of colours on their white robes to mark a break from an oppressive socio-cultural regime.
Widows in many parts of India are not permitted to play Holi even today or participate in any other festival and auspicious function.
The temple town of Vrindavan will witness unique Holi celebrations March 3 when a large number of widows in their white sarees will throw colours and gulal on one another to announce their freedom from bondage.
"Their participation in Holi symbolises a break from tradition which forbids a widow from wearing colours, among many other things," says social reformer and mentor of Sulabh Movement Bindeshwar Pathak.
The celebrations will end March 6.
Vrindavan is also known as the city of widows for the sheer number of women who find shelter here after being shunned by their families. Most of these widows hail from West Bengal.
Pathak told IANS that this time a number of widows from Varanasi will also join celebrations in Vrindavan. A few days back, hundreds of widows living in Varanasi played Holi for the first time.
The idea to celebrate Holi and other festivals was to help the integration of this large section of "socially ostracised women leading a secluded life in deplorable conditions with the mainstream", according to Pathak.
The Supreme Court of India has on several occasions lambasted the union and the Uttar Pradesh governments for the pathetic plight of Vrindavan widows.
Gujarat Vidhan Sabha Election Date 2022: The Election Commission can announce the dates for the G
Dozens of members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) were on Sunday
While economists around the world are expressing the possibility of a global recession, on the ot
Home Minister Amit Shah will hold an election rally today in favor of Bharatiya Janata Party
In the upcoming academic session 2022-23, BTech second-year students of engineering colleges in 1
Actress Priyanka Chopra, who has shown her acting skills from Bollywood to Hollywood, is in a dis
Vijay: Vijay urges Tamil Nadu government not to implement CAA, calls the law 'unacceptable'
The central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced the implementation
Supreme Court on NEET PG 2021: Supreme Court has rejected the demand for a special Stray Vacancy
In the 1985 assembly elections of Gujarat, Congress had created such a history, which to date no
In view of the danger of new variants of Kovid, the Delhi government has made it compulsory to ap
