Dalit Solidarity serves as a lifeline to those living at the fringes of society, encouraging and developing them. We are actively serving a population often forgotten and oppressed. Widows have been neglected and marginalized for centuries and even today in our Indian society. They are deprived of equal opportunity and human rights. We have been serving them pride and joy for the last 20 years and promoted their wellbeing and development.
India is the country with the largest widow population in the world. It is estimated there are 40 million widows in India today - 10 per cent of the country's female population. Many widows are thrown out of family homes by their children or abandoned by their in-laws. Unfortunately, without a man by her side a woman has no respect in rural Indian society. It is part of a patriarchal culture where a woman is respected only if she is a mother, daughter and wife.
Thalirgal, a self-help group, consisting of 180 widows from 15 villages, mostly dalit women enjoy the patronage of Dalit Solidarity for more than decade. Our focus is to provide them with opportunities and training that would support their livelihood. By inspiring widows to live with pride and purpose, we hope to slowly change the social mentality which banishes them to empty, lonely lives. The widows operate the self-help groups and discuss their activities on every monthly.
In addition, this program will serve as the cornerstone in our effort to enable Indian widows to demonstrate that they are not a risk to the order of society because they have no husbands, but rather are productive individuals deserving of dignity and respect. Dalit Solidarity has constructed approximately 70 homes for widows and the poor families living in the Villupuram Dt. over the course of the past 22 years.
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