The upcoming Ganpati festival should create mass awareness about eradicating from society the "evil practices" related to widowhood, a social activist spearheading the campaign in Maharashtra said on Sunday.
Pramod Zinjade, who has been demanding a law for providing respect and protection to widows, said Ganesh mandals should organise events and put up banners to create such awareness during the 10-day Ganpati festival beginning on August 31.
Zinjade said he has circulated his appeal in a WhatsApp group of sarpanchs (village heads), appealing that they circulate the request to all Ganesh mandals in their villages.
The activist has been campaigning against practices like wiping 'sindoor' (vermillion) from a woman's forehead after her husband's death, breaking her bangles, removing her toe rings and preventing her from participating in social and religious functions.
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Notably, Herwad in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district in May this year became the first village in the country to pass a resolution banning the discriminatory rituals against widows, and several gram sabhas have followed suit since then. The state government had on May 17 asked all villages to follow the Herwad model.
(With PTI inputs)
