Maha activist urges villages to allow widows to hoist tricolour this Independence Day

Activist Pramod Zinjade, who heads the campaign against evil practices related to widowhood, has urged sarpanchs of all villages in Maharashtra to allow widows to hoist the tricolour this Independence Day on August 15.

In a public appeal to all sarpanchs, Zinjade said widows should be asked to make a speech after the flag hoisting ceremony in villages.

If all 28,000 villages honour 28,000 widows in this manner, Maharashtra will be seen as a gender equal state, he said. ''All gram sabhas should take photographs and shoot videos of flag-hoisting events and send the same to the state government through district collectors,'' the activist said.

He further said that all gram sabhas should pass a unanimous resolution ending rituals like breaking bangles, wiping off sindoor and removing toe rings of women after the death of their husbands.

A law should be enacted to end these rituals and discrimination against widows at social and religious gatherings, he added.

Herwad in Kolhapur district became the first village in the country to pass a resolution banning the discriminatory rituals against widows, and several gram sabhas have followed suit since then.

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