The DCW Identified 791 Women In Delhi Who Were Widowed Due To The Coronavirus Pandemic

The DCW Identified 791 Women In Delhi Who Were Widowed Due To The Coronavirus Pandemic

Every day we hear heartwrenching stories about people succumbing to coronavirus. It’s a big reason I stopped watching the news. There is so much despair and hopelessness in the air at the moment. The pandemic has wrecked lives, made us lonelier and taken a lot away from us. Each one of us may have been affected differently, some of us may have lost more than others. But having said that, as a country, our losses have been huge and identified on a global scale. As the number of covid deaths escalated in India, we failed to understand the damage it caused to women who were left widowed after the bread earners passed away.

We say this after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has identified 791 women who were widowed due to Covid-19. They came to these statistics after conducting surveys through our capital. The DCW prepared a social survey report with the details of each widowed woman and submitted it to the Delhi government. All we can hope is that they get some kind of aid.

Shockingly, the DCW found that 597 of the women identified had not received even their first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine at the time of the survey. To correct this, the DCW has asked the Delhi government to arrange for these women to get vaccinated on priority. Of course, this is not because they are widowed but because mass vaccination is the only way out of this pandemic.

Also Read: Study Reveals Covid-19 Pandemic Has Forced Women From Low Income Groups To Cut Back On Food

This survey was conducted through the Mahila Panchayat network. Reportedly, the DCW found that 774, that is 97.85 per cent, of the identified women have at least one child. 360 women have three to five children and 30 have more than five children. Nearly 92% of these women fall in the age group of 18-60 years while the rest are senior citizens. That’s not all. Nearly 30% of these women have no source of income after their spouses have passed away, leaving them widowed.

The Arvind Kejriwal led government announced a scheme called the ‘Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Parivar Arthik Sahayta Yojana’. This scheme was launched to provide financial aid to people who have lost loved ones to this pandemic. The DCW conducted this survey to ensure that these widowed women could avail themselves of the benefits of this scheme.

DCW chief Swati Maliwal said, “This scheme launched by Arvind Kejriwal is a very good initiative. Several families have lost their loved ones due to Covid-19. We got our Mahila Panchayat teams to go door to door to identify women who were widowed and were able to identify 791 such women. We are sending a detailed social survey report to the government so that the benefits of the scheme can be passed on to these women.”

These statistics are staggering. Hopefully, these women will be helped and more such surveys will be conducted across the country.

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Mitali Shah

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