Vrindavan widows celebrate Raksha Bandhan for the first time

For the first time in Vrindavan, hundreds of widows defied tradition and celebrated Raksha Bandhan amid  cheers at the Meera Sahabhagini Ashram on Saturday.

It is a new dawn for these women who were never allowed to celebrate the festival by the sole virtue of being “cursed” with widowhood. The widows tied rakhis on the hands of several saints and common people to mark the occasion of Raksha Bandhan.

In all their enthusiasm, the widows, most of them above the age of 80, made thousands of colourful rakhis beforehand to ensure a grand celebration. “After all, we were going to celebrate Raksha Bandhan for the first time,” said an 80-year-old widow.

Around 100 children from different schools in Delhi came to join the celebrations in Vrindavan, which thousands of widows have made their home after being abandoned by their near and dear ones.

As part of the merrymaking, widows shared food with the schoolchildren and even upper cast sadhus and brahmins on the occasion. Sulabh International, a voluntary organisation actively engaged in low-cost sanitation, specially planned cultural activities for the widows.