Background
Organisation & Funds
Objectives
Leadership
Activities
Water
Related Schemes
Health
& Hygiene
Youth
Development
Learning
Centres
Temper
for Science in rural
India
Women's
Empowerment
Activism
against Social ills
Protection
of Heritage
War
Widows
Adventure
Watershed Development
Water Harvesting
Small Community Microhydel Lighting
Refurbishing Village Primary
Schools
Resuscitation & Recharging
of rural wells
Social Forestry
Rural Dwelling
War Widows
The League is spearheading the cause for war widows and their children where the rural community is the main segment to bear the brunt. We maintain that compatible education for the soldier’s children can be the only lasting token of gratitude the nation can offer much more important than any amount of dole we dish out to widows. With our social nuances and age old customs cum traditions large sums of money in the hands of a war widow make her very vulnerable and this has been the cause of disruption and unhappiness ruining many families. Reckless exploitation of the war widow’s cash assets by commercial middlemen leaves many in a bankrupt state no doubt in possession of unnecessary and wasteful items of possession, but no money for any good education for her or the children. The attitude to wrap up our rewards in commercialized packages for the sake of publicity has greatly reduced our moral commitment to the widows. The government once provided a subsidy for backing up the education of war widow’s children upto class 10 but this has been discontinued. As education is becoming privatized and thus too expensive, the rural segment is getting totally marginalized. This is where most widows belong. We took up the sponsorship for backing the education of a few of the children of Kargil casualties in a renowned public school in Delhi. He results were stunning but this scheme could not be sustained beyond two years for lack of resources. Some patriotic donors came forward to help but this met only marginal needs. Our focus is to keep this issue alive and in focus in forums and the establishment while at the same time creating some facilities as a model in selective learning centers through distance education. Providing connectivity to these centers would be a great asset. Meanwhile a dozen of the war widow’s children are still continuing their public school training, This scheme may close if we are not able to revive the support for it.
We shall be adding a chapter on this issue on our next updating.
Lt Gen R S Dayal, PVSM, MVC, talking to war widow's children studding
in Manav Bharati School, Delhi.
