Widows need support not sympathy

The Association for Promoting Social Action (APSA) organised an event as part of the ‘International Widows Day’ at YMCA in Secunderabad on Thursday. Women from slum areas near by attended the event, which was hosted in the presence of B Sumathi deputy commissioner of police north zone.

Speaking at the event, S Sreenivasa Reddy, director of APSA, elaborated on the plight of the women and said, “Upto 259 million widows and over 585 million children suffer in silence worldwide. Over 115 million widows live in poverty struggling for day-to-day survival.

Many of these women and their children are malnourished, exposed to diseases and subjected to extreme forms of deprivation. Widowed women experience targeted murder, rape, prostitution, forced marriage, property theft, eviction, social isolation, and physical abuses.”

B Sumathi empathised with the widows and said, “The people and society should respect and extend helping hand on compassionate grounds towards widows and their children. We are planning to open widow counselling centres to help and support their living.”