Comments on: International Widows’ Day Celebrations of 2012 in Nedunkerny https://groundviews.org/2012/06/25/international-widows-day-celebrations-of-2012-in-nedunkerny/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=international-widows-day-celebrations-of-2012-in-nedunkerny Journalism for Citizens Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:24:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.1 By: rita https://groundviews.org/2012/06/25/international-widows-day-celebrations-of-2012-in-nedunkerny/#comment-45963 Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:24:52 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=9616#comment-45963 In reply to A Concerned Citizen.

Rajani

Thank you for helping the widows in the North and letting us know what happens in the North.

It was sad to note:
Sri Lanka: Women’s Insecurity in the North and East, Asia Report No 217, 20 December 2011

Dear Concerned citizen
Thank you for raising pertinent questions.
To begin with, I’d like to see government-sponsored tamashas to celebrate the this and that out of our agenda, avoiding improbable ventures like the Commonwealth or Olympic Games (18 million spent against Australia last year), …..

]]> By: A Concerned Citizen https://groundviews.org/2012/06/25/international-widows-day-celebrations-of-2012-in-nedunkerny/#comment-45946 Mon, 25 Jun 2012 04:16:52 +0000 http://groundviews.org/?p=9616#comment-45946 It is good to see some of the war widows in Sri Lanka meeting in Nedunkerny to commemorate the International Widows’ Day. There must be a considerable number in the South too, meaning the wives of the Sri Lankan security forces who are missing in action during the war. Perhaps the wives of the security forces personnel killed during the conflict must be receiving a pension from the State, but presumably the plight of the wives of those missing-in-action and those who had disappeared before and after the conflict may be living under dire circumstances. The plight of these widows and their children do not receive much publicity in the media. If one adds figures of the 89,000 war widows in the North and the East the total number could be nearly 200,000. I am sure the Census Department must be having these statistics. Yet there is no declared policy or plan of action by any State institutions on providing meaningful relief or assistance to these widows, most of whom must be facing innumerable problems in the absence of the male member of their family.
The Loomba Foundation which had been formed by concerned individuals is now an internationally recognized UN organization which is caring the millions of widows in India. Recently there was a report that the Loomba Foundation had organized the International Widows Day in a big way in London on 23rd June, 2012. Cherie Blair the President of the Loomba Foundation and 20 other ladies representing widows interest world over, are reported to have walked across the London Bridge on this day to draw attention to the need for help to widows. According to a report in their website the Loomba Foundation has also funded education of over 6500 children of poor widows to support 27000 family members in 29 states of India since 1999, and is providing education to another 3000 children of widows in distress this year (vide http://www.theloombafoundation.org/news/2012#05-10 )

Isn’t it time that the plight of the widows in Sri Lanka brought into focus and more meaningful steps taken to alleviate their problems ? Unfortunately, we have many kinds of activists both in and outside Sri Lanka who rush to demonstrate and cry foul on matters they are think are more important to them politically or otherwise. But such persons appear to have very little concern for the widows in Sri Lanka.

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