Bengali Widows in Vrindaban

Aged Bengali Widows don’t get release from birth-death cycle.

Dead bodies cut to pieces and abandoned in bags into river Yamuna.

District administration wakes up to strict directions of Supreme Court, constitutes team for investigation.

Sunil Sharma

The aged Bengali widows, coming to Vrindaban with a wish of residing in Lord Krishna’s place and to get release from the cycle of birth & death, don’t even get the last rituals due for a human in any civilization and it is such a hair raising tale to have heard about the fate of the dead bodies. There is increasing number of deaths of aged people in bone shivering cold weather and the aged Bengali widows residing in Vrindaban are also affected of the same. The corpses remain lying besides the roads after death of these widows. After being decomposed they are cut to pieces and carried in garbage carriers by the cleaners to abandon near the banks of river Yamuna. Those widows don’t get to know the fate of their bodies after their death that come with belief of getting release from the cycle of birth & death. The district magistrate, having been informed of the matter, constituted a three member committee for investigation. The chief development officer has been nominated as head of this investigating team.

The aged Bengali widows in Vrindaban are in such a pity state that in past they used to reside in the corridors of old temples and damp cells. With ever increasing rates of land they are losing these shelters also and are compelled to spend their remaining part of life on edges of the roads and pedestrian lanes. These aged women neither get cloth nor the woods for cremation after death. The cleaner cuts the body lying on road side into pieces and packs in bags to abandon near river Yamuna where stray dogs feed on the decaying bodies. Though Vrindaban is known as a religious city but the in-human state of these widows does not invite attention of any religious preachers to initiate build any system for last rites of these aged widows who come here with wish of serving the Lord.

One group of faithful women on their visit to Vrindaban has witnessed the incidents and has collected records of the same. The group of faithful women has seen the pity state of aged Bengali widows in Vrindaban and Radha kund and got published the facts in reputed English daily. On taking note of the news of that paper the honourable judge Altmas Kabir of Supreme Court has called explanation from the government. The evidences recorded by the faithful women have exposed the in-human act on the hundreds of aged Bengali widows residing in Mathura, Vrindaban and Radha Kund. After the death of aged widows in old age homes and shelter houses, the cleaners dispose the dead bodies in un-habited places on the banks of Yamuna after cutting them into pieces and packing in bags.

The senior judge immediately ordered the National Judicial Services Authority for investigation which has been forwarded to the State Judicial Services Authority of U.P. The secretary of the State Judicial Services Authority of U.P. has ordered the then district judge Virendra Bahadur Yadav for in depth investigation of the matter. The district judge has promptly constituted a nine member team under the leadership of Ms. Sapna Tripathi, secretary, District Judicial Services Authority. The team members have interviewed hundreds of widows for three months, and finalized a 20 point document based on the interview including detailed information related to about 450 widows from Vrindaban and 30 widows from Radha Kund.

The investigating committee has recorded the video of conversation with the widows which revealed the facts about how the dead bodies have been dealt with after death of the aged widows. The investigating committee when enquired from the managers of the shelter houses, they expressed the lack of funds for performing the due last rites, due to which such in-human acts are being done.

The honorable Supreme Court, taking the matter seriously, on 29^th December 2011 has directed Chief Secretary Mr. Sadakant of the Department of Social Welfare, Women Welfare and Child Development and Nutrition of the state, who in turn directed Joint Secretary Mr. S. K. Singh to visit the Mathura-Vrindaban region at the earliest and consult the Judicial Magistrate and District Magistrate and submit the report to the government by 30^th January. In the meantime it was communicated to Mr. S. K. Singh about the seriousness of the government to initiate effective actions to address the issue urgently.

The District Magistrate N. G. Ravikumar, taking the note of this important issue, has constituted a team lead by Chief Development Officer S. Mathu Shalini, including Vice-Chairman of Development Authority Mr. V. K. Pawar and ADM (Finance) Mr. Manmohan Chaudhary. The investigating team is supposed to conduct the investigation urgently and submit their report to the District Magistrate.

Sunil Sharma,

Mathura.

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