UN Women, the global organization said, “The loss of a spouse or partner is often devastating, but for many women it is magnified by a long-term struggle for basic needs, human rights and dignity owing to social taboos, lack of financial independence and education among women. UN Women marked International Widow’s Day 2018 on 23^rd June.

In India, 10,000 women wrote postcards to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to let him know about the problems they face after not being able to set a meeting with him. This campaign was organised by Parul Chaudhary, who said that this act might help us sensitize the government on these issues.

Parul Chaudhry launched the National Forum for Single Women’s Rights in 2009 under which this postcard campaign was organised. Women form West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Punjab participated in this letter writing campaign on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.  These women, will be writing the postcards till June 30^th and have written such letters to their respective states in the past also.

One of these women, Pratibha Devi, is unable to work any longer, requested that the minimum amount of social security pension should be Rs. 2000 for the vulnerable and food grain allotment should be increased to 15 kg. per person from the present 5 kg. under the National Food Security Act. She hopes for a revert from the Prime minister soon.

In one of these letters to Modi, a leader from Telangana named Vasantha said that government schemes for skill development of the youth have ignored the needs of crores of single women in India, a lot of these women join the workforce at relatively older ages, and continue to work even in their old ages out of circumstantial obligation.

Nirmal Chandel, the National Convener of the forum stated that the government should pay attention since single women have proved that they can change their own lives for the better along with being important agents of social change.

According to the 2011 census, there are 5,05,09,941 single women in India which includes widows, separated, divorced and unmarried women.

Chandel also said that the National Forum for Single Women’s Rights  has been seeking an appointment with the Prime Minister for over a year and now they are preparing a ‘memorandum of demands’ after speaking with women across the country associated with the forum.

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