Ashamed of being a widow, she helped 16,000 women like her find income and freedom

Women helping other women to grow income…Know more…

Wednesday, 29th September 2021

Nirmal Chandel of Himachal Pradesh, widowed at the age of 23, was rejected and insulted until she decided to take matters into her own hands and blame Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan for encouraging widows, single and abandoned through political change .

Don't dress, you too could die”.

Have you completely lost your shame?

"A widow who shows up at a wedding in brightly colored clothes is a bad omen. Instead, Nirmal Chandel was greeted with these insults. It was her brother's wedding in 1994, and the groom's trousseau, which she had bought for her brothers in her own name, was called Manhoos (bad luck).

But her brother defended her, she dressed and even danced with Nirmal 4

For this resident of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh, this incident was neither isolated nor the worst. Nirmal's husband had died of a heart attack in 1989 at the age of 30. For a year she had to live in a dimly lit room without a fan. The eviction of widows is a common practice, and Nirmal's case was no different.

After the death of her husband, she was prohibited from wearing brightly colored clothing, eating with the rest of the family, attending events, or doing anything that resembled a normal life.

To break from this submission, Nirmal decided to take matters into her own hands. She joined Social Upliftment through Rural Action (SUTRA), an NGO, where she was trained and hired as an accountant with a monthly salary of Rs 350.

This process of fighting for their own rights and independence has resulted in Nirmal influencing the lives of more than 16,000 widowed, single and divorced women. In 2005 she founded Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan (ENSS) to lead the unrest and bring about political change.

Finding my identity

Nirmal was waiting for a job at the SUTRA office as it was only a metric passport. To her surprise, she was offered the position of accountant.

At the time, he did not know the number of zeros in billions and had never seen a check or a computer in his life. However, she was ready to learn. And so, for the next 15 years, she learned auditing, accounting, bookkeeping, and more.

“For the first time I was allowed to make mistakes. People were interested in me. My contributions and my work were valuable. As we are a small town, word of my work quickly spread. It was frowned upon and people didn't give me a chance to humiliate myself.

But I won and lived in the SUTRA shelter, so I didn't care what they said. During this time, several widows approached me to tell me about their problems. His conditions were worse than mine. The children of the widows died of hunger. She really wanted to help them,”says Nirmal.

When women shake hands

In 2005, life took another pleasant turn for Nirmal. In 2005, SUTRA asked him to attend a widows' meeting in Rajasthan. The objective of the meeting was to march to the prime minister's house and promote the rights of single women.

For Nirmal, who had never left Himachal, it was a revelation. Dressed in a beige sari, she was surprised to see other women from different countries in colorful clothes and jewelry. Amidst women who had similar stories, Nirmal recognized for the first time the power of community ties and the importance of confident and unapologetic women.

The News Talkie Bureau

Source

ThebetterIndia