Widow Holi

A widow plays Holi with other widows as they celebrate the festival of colors and flowers at Gopinath temple, Vrindavan, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

India has a huge population in every category with different race of people. India has approx. 80% population of Hindu caste. There are approx. 40 million widow women living in India right now, and most of them are living a half-life (miserable), most of them are poor and lonely. The main reasons of their suffering are the traditions and cultures that have been going on for centuries, where becoming a widow can mean complete banishment from society.  The government has made plans, but according to a report mentioned in an online article, only 28% of widows are eligible for pension. But things have been changing in a good way.

Vrindavan, a small city in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, has a large number of guest houses, so called ‘Ashrams’ and they welcome Widows from all over India to spend their life if they have no place to live in. Widows are not socially allowed to celebrate the spring festival of Hindus i.e. Holi.

But breaking Stigmas, a riot of colors and flowers took over the 385 years old Radha Gopinath temple  as hundreds of widows, Wearing traditional white sarees, played with flowers and then smeared hues of red, yellow, purple and green on each other.