A district-level conference of widows was organized to celebrate their resilience and to share their entrepreneurial success. The one-day conference, held in Paratwada city of Amravati district on 8 August, was attended by nearly 100 widows who have started small businesses.

“No matter how difficult situations are, widows have the strength and the will to touch the sky. I admire the positive attitude that the widows have demonstrated despite passing through painful and very challenging situations”, Archbishop Elias Gonsalves of Nagpur said while addressing widows who have started small businesses and alternative livelihood activities.

“The grit that the women have displayed and their strong will to live a life of dignity are truly remarkable”, the prelate further said.

The conference of widows was organized as part of the ongoing Samarth programme being implemented in Amravati for helping ‘farm widows’ to recover from the economic and social shock after the loss of their husbands. Samarth also works on the social and economic empowerment of ‘farm widows’ who lost their husbands to the agrarian distress which has been widespread in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

Samarth, apart from helping farm widows to start new livelihoods, also organized them into neighbourhood groups and constituted a district-level federation for mutual help. The federation serves as the platform for the widows to exchange their experience and learning and to provide numeric strength to them.

Samarth, implemented by Jeevan Vikas Sanstha and supported by Misereor and Caritas India, also links women-headed households of Amravati to the benefits of government schemes and programmes.

“Samarth has made a remarkable contribution to the social and economic empowerment and upliftment of widows. Even the government could not have done such marvellous work”, said Mr. Dilip Kale, Mentor and Member of the Women and Child Development department. While highlighting the challenges and struggles of widows, Mr. Dilip Kale said that a lot more needs to be done for the welfare and protection of widows.

Earlier Archbishop Elias felicitated all the guests and all guests paid respects before the portrait of Gadge Baba an eminent social reformer of Maharashtra. Archbishop Elias and the distinguished guests also interacted with the widows.

Fr. Jose Kunnappally, director of Jeevan Vikas Sanstha, briefed the gathering about the objectives of Samarth programme and its strategy of socio-economic empowerment of widows. He also spoke about the successes of Samarth in terms of new livelihoods and businesses that were started by widows and government scheme benefits that were reached to the families of widows.  

“Government and other agencies have formed and strengthened numerous groups across the state. But this is for the first time that widows are organized into groups and federations. Samarth has organized us and empowered us to fight marginalization. Since we are widows, we have always been neglected in society. But our groups and federation have given us strength and confidence”, said Ms. Vanita Panchale, the president of district level widows’ federation. She also highlighted the good works that the federation has done so far for empowering widows and thanked JVS for organizing widows.

During the occasion, widows who have achieved outstanding success in setting up and expanding businesses were felicitated and certificates of appreciation were given to them. A short film on the success of Samarth was also screened during the conference.