War widows neglected, says War Widow Guild

Shimla, Jul 28 (UNI) War widows, especially those who have lost their husbands before the Kargil conflict, are the most neglected women in the country, Akhil Bhartiya War Widow Guild founder Sudesh GB Singh today said.

Addressing a press conference here, she said be it the defence forces, the defence ministry, the Sainik Welfare Boards or the state governments, none have bothered to look after the welfare of these woman, whose husbands died defending the nation's security on the frontiers.

Mr Singh said among the war widows of the 1962, 1965 and 1971 wars, the condition of such women living in Aknoor, Baramullah, Ohri, Ladhak and other parts of Kashmir valley was the worst.

''None has bothered to look after them or protect them.'' Mr Singh, widow of the Lt Gen Gurbaksh Singh, said despite the assurance of every Defense Minister for the past 30 years, no separate ministry or special cell for widows has been created by the union government.

''Even the state Sanik Welfare Boards have not been able to secure job opportunities and the state governments do not provide proper incentives or reservations to the wards of defence widows,'' she said.

She said that there were about 12,000 widows of armedforces personnel in Himachal alone of which about 4000 were war widows.

Ex-servicemen and widows were getting a raw deal under the system and their issues were never raised in the Parliament, she said.

War heroes or their widows can never be a dominant part of demographic politics and it is not worthy of a nation to neglect such people who have sacrificed the most, when the country demanded it, Ms Singh added.

UNI