Chained Widows

Byline: Ruhie Jamshaid Behind the songs that resonate from the temples of the holy city of Vrindavan, India, stand destitute widows who sing for a single bowl of rice and lentils, their only meal for the day. Many Indian widows, stigmatized and abandoned by society, make their way to this Holy City to sing devotional hymns to survive their ill-fate. The widows of India are shunned by society and abolished from a normal existence by virtue of the death of their spouses, something very much beyond their control. Though fate has dealt its cruel card, they receive little or nil compassion from society. Welcome to the horrifying world of Indian widows... almost 40 million of them... where tales of hunger, mental, physical and sexual abuse abound.