Tagumpay National High School School year of 2011-2012

Assignment In Mapeh II
Article: The Cultures, Traditions and Events in South Asia.
Submitted By: Markhill V. Tiosan Year and Section: II-Jasmine

Submitted to: Mrs. Lucile Algoso

Table of Contents
Title:
The Cultures,Traditions and Events Of South Asian

Cultures in South Asia. South Asian Art and Culture

Tradition in South Asia. Islamic Traditions in South Asia South AsianTraditions and Cultures: Hybridity or Modernization?

Events 2010 South Asia. 31 December, 2010, Kathmandu, Nepal 9th December, 2010, Kathmandu, Nepal 29th November 2010, New Delhi

The Cultures,Traditions and Events Of South Asia

Culture of Asia
The culture of Asia is human civilization in Asia. It features different kinds of cultural heritage of many nationalities, societies, and ethnic groups in the region, traditionally called a continent from a Western-centric perspective, of Asia. The region or "continent" is more commonly divided into more natural geographic and cultural sub regions, including the Central Asia, East Asia, South Asia (the "Indian subcontinent"),North Asia, West Asia and Southeast Asia. Geographically, Asia is not a distinct continent; culturally, there has been little unity or common history for many of the cultures and peoples of Asia. Asian art, music, and cuisine, as well as literature, are important parts of Asian culture. Eastern philosophy and religion also plays a major role, with Hinduism, Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam; all playing major roles. One of the most complex parts of Asian culture is the relationship between traditional cultures and the Western world. The South Asian culture is a mixed bowl of a number of different influencing societies, nationalities, ethnic traditions and cultural heritages. The sub-continent is a pot pourrie from the Western-centric perspective and is commonly divided into natural geographic and cultural regions. The region comprises North Asia, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, South West Asia, South East Asia and the Caucasus. Interestingly, and adding to the enigma of the region, Asia is not a distinct continent, geographically. It is distinctly home to commonalities in culture and there has been little or no unity within the natural framework. South Asian culture comprises its art, cuisine, music, literature, philosophy, religions and the complex relationship between the common, traditional cultures. Home to Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Islam, Confucianism and Christianity, South Asian culture is rich and varied. The nations of South Asia share an ethnic background and most of the territorial divisions have come up only in the recent past. These similar cultures were basically separated due to varying religious compositions. The culture springs from the rich early Indus Valley Civilization that saw the influx and mix of the Aryan and Dravidian races. The populace component of South Asia eventually mingled to form a unique common culture. The major exodus from the northwest, near the borders of Afghanistan, saw a major influence on the religions of the sub continent, with the arrival of Islam. Though, in the traditional South Asian culture most divisions were based on religion, the commonalities are seen in common interests in sports, shared history, geographical conditions, occupations, lifestyles, food and dress. The temples and places of worship are architectural marvels and completely rebuilt, in the same style, every few years. The common material used in the building includes wood, thatch and stone. The South Asian culture includes commonalities in celebrations and festivals. Dance is common to all the culture components as a form of announcing harvest, spring and the onset of winter. The people of South Asian culture dance to the beat of a drum, even as they sing and dance. In South Asia, dance is an integral part of the culture, with slight variations in style. There are courtly dances, dances of celebration and dance dramas. The stories handed down the ages also have a lot of similarity. They all talk of a a terrible flood or years spent to control a deluge and help received from the heavens to fix the

broken sky! The South Asian culture is also home to a number of magical animals and plants, like the extolled nekomatas or felines with two tails and magical powers, the Balinese child-eating rangdas, the pishachas or haunters of the cremation grounds etc. Story-telling and folklores are common to the cultures of the region and South Asia has given the world a collection of fables. South Asia displays great linguistic diversity, the components being a number of language families and isolates and regional dialects. Most of the South Asian countries have more than one language natively spoken. South Asian philosophical traditions cover a large spectrum of thoughts and writings. They include antithesis like on one hand propagating non-material pursuits, whereas on the other preach the enjoyment of material world. The region is home to the universally accepted and applied Gandhian principles of non-violence and peaceful resistance. Interestingly, majority of people in the world who practice a religious faith, practice one originally from South Asia. The region celebrates a variety of festivals, which are also traditional holidays in many regions. In South Asia, rice is the staple food. The region is not only a major consumer but the worlds granary of rice. The use of exotic spices that grow on the land and extensive consumption of fish along the coastlines is another common feature. Years of colonization and interactions with other cultures and nations, the cuisine has also inherited flavors that are distinctly Latin and American. These are incorporated within the people's local blends.

South Asian Art and Culture

The artistic remains, consisting of sacred image as well as sensuous, often flamboyant figures of women, emphasize the intermingling of the sacred and the secular in the art of India The Indian subcontinent forms an inverted triangle extending from the snow-bound Himalayan ranges of Asia toward the equator. Known also as South Asia, the area includes the countries of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bhutan; artistically, the Tibetan highlands also form part of the region. Stretching some 1,800 miles from north to south, and almost the same distance from west to east, the area is home to an ancient and diverse group of cultures. India is the largest single nation of South Asia. Its currently twenty-four states exhibit a cultural diversity comparable to that seen among the nations of Europe. The Tamil region of South India has a language, script,musical tradition, dance forms, and an artistic heritage that are quite distinct from those found in, say, Punjab in the north. It is this diversity that makes the artistic traditions of India so complex and rewarding to follow. During the third millenniumB.C., spacious cities, displaying advanced town planning, were built along the plains of the Indus River. The settlers of these ancient communities traded with the contemporary civilizations of Mesopotamia and used an elegant form of pictorial writing that is yet to be deciphered. Steatite seals, delicately carved with figures of animals and occasionally of humans, testify to their creators' artistic sensibilities. The great cities of the Indus Valley flourished for more than a thousand years. Between 1800 and 1200B.C., a steady trickle of Indo-European peoples who called themselves Aryans (Sanskritaryameans "noble") entered the Indian subcontinent. They brought with them a group of sacred hymns known as the Vedas ("knowledge"), composed in the ancient Sanskrit language. The Vedic hymns praise an entire group of deities to whom the Aryans offered homage. Several are personifications of the powerful forces of nature, such as Indra, the god of thunder and rain and the patron deity of war; the solar deity Surya; and Agni, the god of fire. The religion known today asHinduismhas its roots in these ancient texts. Hinduism is a religion without a single founder, a single spokesman, or indeed a single set of fixed tenets. It evolved and changed over the years as the once-nomadic Aryans spread across the subcontinent, took to settled life, and as they mingled with the local populations, adopted several of their beliefs and customs. In keeping with its Vedic origins, Hinduism remains a polytheistic faith that admits the power of a number of

deities. The three mostpopulardeities of present-day Hinduism, which draws directly on later texts known as the Puranas (composed early in the present era), are the god Shiva, the god Vishnu, and the goddess Shakti (literally, "Power"). Hindus generally address their worship to one or another of the three and are accordingly known as Shaivas, Vaishnavas, or Shaktas. Temples were built to enshrine the image of the chosen deity, and the exterior walls of these temples were covered with numerous sculpted images and masses of decorative carvings. Relief carvings from the myths of the enshrined deity played an important role in glorifying the god whose various manifestations found a place in the niches on the temple walls. In addition, sculptors carved a variety of auspicious motifs that included overflowing foliage, figures of women, and images of embracing couples, all of which suggested growth, abundance, and prosperity. Side by side with the flowering of the plastic arts, philosophy and literature, as well as music and dance, flourished in the Hindu context. India's best-known philosophical system, Vedanta, associated with the philosopher Shankara, proposed a monistic belief in the identity of the human soul with the divine principle. A rich body of secular literature, including poems and dramas, fables and epics, was written first in Sanskrit and later in a number of regional languages, from southern Tamil to northern Kashmiri, from western Gujarati to eastern Bengali. Music and dance played an important part in the religious and secular life of the subcontinent. Hindu religion, culture, and art spread overseas into several parts of Southeast Asia, where the two great epics of India, theRamayanaand theMahabharata, continue to play an important theatrical role. India is the birthplace of two other major religions that arose during the sixth and fifth centuriesB.C.One wasBuddhism, a faith propounded by Prince Siddhartha, who achieved enlightenment and became known as theBuddha(literally, "Enlightened One"). The Buddha's path to nirvana (Buddhist salvation) was a path of moderation that was open to all. It denied the caste system of the Hindus and emphasized an upright, moral life. Buddhism gained rapid popularity within India and, at an early date, spread along the Silk Road into China, Korea, and Japan, where it became a major force. The countries of Southeast Asia, too, imbibed the Buddha's teachings. Buddhists especially revere the founder of their faith, who was deified and adored as a god. In early times, his mortal remains (in the form of ashes following cremation) were interred within relic mounds known as stupas. Relief sculptures narrating the life of the Buddha were used to decorate such stupa mounds. The range of auspicious motifs used in a Hindu context-foliage, women, couples-also formed part of the decorative scheme of the stupa. Buddhas later built richly decorated temples to enshrine an image of the Buddha. The other major religion that arose in the sixth centuryB.C.is traditionally accepted as having been founded by Mahavira, an elder contemporary of the Buddha. Once he had attained enlightenment, he was known as Jina, or "Victor," and the path he propounded is known as Jainism. Although similar in many ways to the path of the Buddha, Jainism places greater emphasis on austerity and asceticism, which are upheld as ideals. The faith did not spread beyond India, but it holds an important place within the subcontinent. Jain temples, which enshrine an image of one of the twenty-fourjinas, are similar in many ways to those built to honor Hindu gods; only the narrative themes and the identity of the sacred images are different. India is home to other religions as well, includingIslam, a monotheistic faith. Northwestern India was first penetrated by Muslim armies in the early eighth centuryA.D., although Islam did not establish a firm foothold there until the eleventh century. The last of the world religions to arise in the subcontinent is Sikhism, which, in certain respects, attempted to bridge the gulf between Hinduism and Islam. The greater proportion of the art in stone that has survived was used to decorate sacred structures. Secular monuments certainly existed, and monarchs and nobles built themselves imposing palaces and mansions. It would appear, however, that such structures were made in the perishable medium of brick and wood and decorated with terracotta and wood sculptures. In the hot and humid climate of much of India, these ancient secular monuments have perished. It is only after Islam came to India that secular monuments began to be constructed of stone. Thus it is that the majority of the works of art seen in the South Asian galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, most of them of stone, come from a religious context. The artistic remains, consisting of sacred image as well as sensuous, often flamboyant figures of women, emphasize the intermingling of the sacred and the secular in the art of India.

Traditions South Asia

Islamic Traditions in South Asia
Muslims practice a series of life-cycle rituals that differ from those of Hindus, Jains, or Buddhists. The newborn baby has the call to prayer whispered into the left ear, the profession of faith whispered into the right ear, honey or date paste placed in the mouth, and a name selected. On the sixth day after birth, the first bath occurs. On the seventh day or a multiple of the seventh, the head is shaved, and alms are distributed, ideally in silver weighing as much as the hair; a sacrifice of animals imitates the sheep sacrificed instead of Ishmael (Ismail) in biblical times. Religious instruction starts at age four years, four months, and four days, beginning with the standard phrase: "In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Merciful." Male circumcision takes place between the ages of seven and twelve. Marriage requires a payment by the husband to the wife and the solemnization of a marital contract in a social gathering. Marriage ceremonies include the donning of a nose ring by the bride, or in South India a wedding necklace, and the procession of the bridegroom. In a traditional wedding, males and females attend ceremonies in different rooms, in keeping with the segregation of sexes in most social settings. After death the family members wash and enshroud the body, after which it is buried as prayers from the Quran are recited. On the third day, friends and relatives come to console the bereaved, read the Quran, and pray for the soul of the deceased. The family observe a mourning period of up to forty days. The annual festivals of Islam are based on a lunar calendar of 354 days, which makes the Islamic holy year independent of the Gregorian calendar. Muslim festivals make a complete circuit of the solar year every thirty-three years. The beginning of the Islamic calendar is the month of Muharram, the tenth day of which is Ashura, the anniversary of the death of Husayn, the son of Ali. Ashura, a major holiday, is of supreme importance for the Shia. Devotees engage in ritualized mourning that may include processions of colorful replicas of Husayn's tomb at Karbala and standards with palms on top, which are carried by barefoot mourners and buried at an imitation Karbala. In many areas of India, these parades provide a dramatic spectacle that draws large numbers of non-Muslim onlookers. Demonstrations of grief may include bouts of self-flagellation that can draw blood and may take place in public streets, although many families retain personal mourning houses. Sunni Muslims may also commemorate Husayn's death but in a less demonstrative manner, concentrating instead on the redemptive aspect of his martyrdom. The last day of Ramazan is Id al Fitr (Feast of Breaking the Fast), another national holiday, which ends the month of fasting with almsgiving, services in mosques, and visits to friends and neighbors. Bakr Id, or Id al Zuha (Feast of Sacrifice), begins on the tenth day of the Islamic month of Dhul Hijjah and is a major holiday. Prescribed in the Quran, Id al Zuha commemorates Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael (rather than Ishaq-Isaac--as in the Judeo-Christian tradition) according to God's command, but it is also the high point of the pilgrim's ritual cycle while on the hajj in Mecca. All of these festivals involve large feasts, gifts given to family and neighbors, and the distribution of food for charitable purposes.

A significant aspect of Islam in India is the importance of shrines attached to the memory of great Sufi saints. Sufism is a mystical path (tariqat ) as distinct from the path of the sharia. A Sufi attains a direct vision of oneness with God, often on the edges of orthodox behavior, and can thus become a pir (living saint) who may take on disciples (murids ) and set up a spiritual lineage that can last for generations. Orders of Sufis became important in India during the thirteenth century following the ministry of Muinuddin Chishti (1142-1236), who settled in Ajmer, Rajasthan, and attracted large numbers of converts to Islam because of his holiness. His Chishtiyya order went on to become the most influential Sufi lineage in India, although other orders from Central Asia and Southwest Asia also reached to India and played a large role in the spread of Islam. Many Sufis were well known for weaving music, dance, intoxicants, and local folktales into their songs and lectures. In this way, they created a large literature in regional languages that embedded Islamic culture deeply into older South Asian traditions. In the case of many great teachers, the memory of their holiness has been so intense that they are still viewed as active intercessors with God, and their tombs have become the site of rites and prayers by disciples and lay people alike. Tales of miraculous deeds associated with the tombs of great saints have attracted large numbers of pilgrims attempting to gain cures for physical maladies or solutions to personal problems. The tomb of the pir thus becomes adargah (gateway) to God and the focus for a wide range of rituals, such as daily washing and decoration by professional attendants, touching or kissing the tomb or contact with the water that has washed it, hanging petitions on the walls of the shrine surrounding the tomb, lighting incense, and giving money. The descendants of the original pir are sometimes seen as inheritors of his spiritual energy, and, as pirs in their own right, they might dispense amulets sanctified by contact with them or with the tomb. The annual celebration of the pir 's death is a major event at important shrines, attracting hundreds of thousands of devotees for celebrations that may last for days. Free communal kitchens and distribution of sweets are also big attractions of these festivals, at which Muslim fakirs, or wandering ascetics, sometimes appear and where public demonstrations of self-mortification, such as miraculous piercing of the body and spiritual possession of devotees, sometimes occur. Every region of India can boast of at least one major Sufi shrine that attracts expressive devotion, which remains important, especially for Muslim women. The leadership of the Muslim community has pursued various directions in the evolution of Indian Islam during the twentieth century. The most conservative wing has typically rested on the education system provided by the hundreds of religious training institutes (madrasa ) throughout the country, which have tended to stress the study of the Quran and Islamic texts in Arabic and Persian, and have focused little on modern managerial and technical skills (see Education and Society, ch). Several national movements have emerged from this sector of the Muslim community. The Jamaati Islami (Islamic Party), founded in 1941, advocates the establishment of an overtly Islamic government through peaceful, democratic, and nonmissionary activities. It had about 3,000 active members and 40,000 sympathizers in the mid-1980s. The Tablighi Jamaat (Outreach Society) became active after the 1940s as a movement, primarily among the ulama, stressing personal renewal, prayer, a missionary and cooperative spirit, and attention to orthodoxy. It has been highly critical of the kind of activities that occur in and around Sufi shrines and remains a minor if respected force in the training of the ulama. Other ulama have upheld the legitimacy of mass religion, including exaltation of pirs and the memory of the Prophet. A powerful secularizing drive led to the founding of Aligarh Muslim University (founded in 1875 as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College)--with its modern curriculum--and other major Muslim universities. This educational drive has remained the most dominant force in guiding the Muslim community.

South AsianTraditions and Cultures: Hybridity or Modernization?

The history of South Asian tradition extends to well before Christianity, empirically quantifying the Indus Valley Civilization as the herald of the formation of an indigenous method of cultural development. Two thousand years later, South Asian cultures still stand out among those of different civilizations. The era of globalization and mass communication have raised many questions as to whether these cultures will defy hybridity and remain independent, or even whether they will withstand the increasingly adamant hegemony of modernization. In South Asian society, modernization has in fact generated a bifurcation between those who still fervently subscribe to indigenous culture and tradition, and those who find more comfort in a form of hybrid existence with modernity. This bifurcation can also be quantified along the lines of urban-rural divides and the politics of centre-periphery. Even so, this cultural hybridity is seen to strain greatly under the pressure of a moral imperative to prioritize ones own culture over anothers. The circumstances which therefore render cultural hybridity ineffective in South Asia are instances where indigenous traditions do not allow any amendment or contemporaneous adaptation. South Asian cultures still ascribe populously, if not popularly, to the traditions of arranged marriage and gender segregation. The societal structure of the South Asian family in general is still as such, and minor anomalous phenomenon, specifically in urbanized areas, do not qualify as a credible ascension towards societal rationality and modernized hybridity. Rural areas in South Asia, which are plentiful in proportion to urban areas, still have a majority of families where parents have an ultimate say regarding their childrens marriage, and where the male members of the family eat in separate quarters from the female members. Therefore, we must restrict our analysis to urban areas so that we may understand how hybridity interacts with indigenous culture and tradition. The important allusion above is necessary to understand how important education and social exposure are when rationalized cultural hybridity is concerned. Let us consider again, after restricting ourselves to an urban analysis, the example of arranged marriages and gender segregation. In any given family that resides in one of South Asias urban centers, the male and female members of a family normally eat meals together and do not have separate quarters for male and female members. However, when one considers a larger gathering, mostly of relatives, it might be that the male and female members eat separately. It is common to witness such activity at marriages and funerals or where sacred religious festivals require so. As far as arranged marriages are concerned, the phenomenon of parents deciding their childrens life partner is still registered with convincing quantities. Dhooleka Rajs own examples show that even in modern societies, South Asian families/individuals do persist with certain traditions while allowing for modernity to function as they see fit, and this constitutes the core hybridity of South Asian tradition. Circumstances that destroy this hybridity concern those traditions that persist beyond ones willingness or capability to allow any deviation from the set and inherited tradition. Religious traditions warrant a greater incapability for hybridity to function, because of the sheer degree of association that still persists with South Asian practices as compared to general religious affinity in other societies. It is not impertinent to state that even urban middle classes are rejecting certain types of global political forces. It is a circumstance where indigenous culture itself rules out any format of hybridity. However, other traditions such as festivals and celebrations clearly separate South Asian civilization from other cultures. The persistence of this specific nature of cultures cannot be normatively denied at any cost, and the concepts of modernity and hybridity respect the celebration of cultural diversity in such a manner. Cultural hybridity does not break down in such circumstances. It reflects the degree of cultural harmony in South Asia with other cultures, and since our consideration is limited to urban centers, we see that festivals such as Valentines Day and May Day are also celebrated along with Basant and Diwali. Therefore, we see that cultural hybridization is a prevalent phenomenon in urban South Asia and is characterized by the increased feasibility of modernity and an inherent nature of indigenous tradition pertaining specifically to hybridity. South Asian culture itself affords degrees of adaptability and hybridity with different cultures under different circumstances for

different people. As far as economic modernity and the communication of business and lifestyle cultures, South Asian cultures have displayed a greater degree of adaptability because they adapt as well as emit cultural models and have credited importance in the global economy. India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan have experienced greater cultural diversity in recent history; having undergone McDonaldization and MTV-pop culture according to different degrees of adaptability. This degree becomes limited when religious cultures are concerned, because these traditions require the subjects complete conformity, and henceforth rule out any variation or hybridity. In these circumstances, it is questionable whether conformity to indigenous belief and culture must precede the application of a modernized and hybrid culture, or vice versa. For instance, the regular week in Pakistan is arranged to allow for the Friday congregational prayer, which is compulsory as per Islamic tradition, and all formal and informal businesses are directed to either close down at noon, or halt operations till 2P.M and then recommence. Similarly, South Asias contributions to the global economy are halted for those days when regional culture requires respect; as on Ashura or Bikarami Samvat, or celebration; Eid or Holi. This highlights the moral imperative in South Asian cultures to follow a certain tradition (in this circumstance, religious and associative culture of Pakistan) in a specific and exact format. The issue of whether South Asia is prone to cultural adaptability is very subjective. One can always relate to the after-effects of colonization. The elite adopted the British grandeur style and it continued to trickle down the multiplicity of classes. In South Asia cultural change or hybridity has always surged through the elite class and cultural penetration of such kind is significantly dependant upon the influencing powers. Further on, as already mentioned that the penetration of this cultural hybridity is more in the urban zone than in the rural sphere, shows that globalization despite its manipulative ability is still limited to an extent. There are certain repellent factors such as conservatism that exist in South Asian society which tend to limit the effect of globalization. Even though fundamentalist factions continue to retard advances, it remains an irrefutable fact that South Asia has come of age and has begun its cultural renaissance, but hybridity perhaps remains a complex subject of separation and synthesis.

South Asian Events in 2010

31 December, 2010, Kathmandu, Nepal: The UNIFEM Programme Office in Nepal organized a press briefing at the UN Conference room on 31 December 2010 to announce the establishment of UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. 36 media persons representing various national dailies and media houses were present at the briefing. Ms. Sangeeta Thapa, Programme Coordinator, UN Women in Nepal welcomed and briefed them on UN Women, informing them that this was the result of four different UN entities, DAW, INSTRAW, OSAGI and UNIFEM being merged. Ms. Thapa highlighted the significance of UN Women as the lead driver to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide. Presenting a background to how it came about, Ms. Thapa informed that it was a result of years of negotiations between UN Member States, advocacy by the global womens movement and by the fact that it was a part of the UN Reform Agenda. 2 July and 14 September 2010 were, she said, historical days for women. The former, because the General Assembly announced the creation of UN Women to step up progress on womens rights; and the latter, because, Ms. Michelle Bachelet, former President of Chile was appointed Executive Director and Under Secretary General of the organization. Responding to a media query, Ms. Thapa assured them that UNIFEMs ongoing efforts for gender equality and the empowerment of women would continue through UN Women. Ms. Sharu Joshi Shrestha, Regional Programme Manager for Migration extended her appreciation to all partners for their continued support and cooperation to UNIFEM. She mentioned the womens movement, the Government of Nepal, civil society, media and the UN Country Team. She reiterated that UN Women in Nepal would continue to work closely with all concerned stakeholders to address diverse issues affecting the lives of women and girls. She said that she was confident that UN Women would continue to receive their encouragement, cooperation and support.

9th December, 2010, Kathmandu, Nepal: UN Women in collaboration with the Nepalese Army, organized and celebrated International Human Rights Day on 9th December 2010, on their premises Sahba Griha. The Nepalese Army pledged to never commit, condone or remain silent about violence against women and girls. Brigadier General Nirendra Prasad Aryal, Director of the Human Rights Directorate, stated that the celebration of International Human Rights Day focused on womens rights as human rights. He said that this was the first time that the Nepalese Army had participated to support the campaign to end violence against women. They symbolized this by putting on the white ribbon. UN Women expressed its gratitude and appreciation to the Nepalese Army for their commitment to ending violence against women and for coming forward through a historic partnership for the implementation of the SCRs 1325 and 1820. Dr. Chandra Bhadra, the resource person for the day, made a presentation on womens rights, making linkages with CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, UNSCR 1325 and 1820 and the White Ribbon Campaign. This was a significant formal beginning of UN Womens partnership with the Nepal Army. 29th November 2010, New Delhi: The Report, Dimensions of Deprivation focusing on the poverty levels of the Widows of Vrindavan by the Guild of Service, supported by UN Women was launched on 29th November 2010 by Mr. D.K Sikri, Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India. Present on dais with him were Dr. Mohini Giri, Chairperson of the Guild of Service, Ms. Anne F. Stenhammer, Regional Programme Director, UN Women South Asia, Ms. Madhubala Nath, Regional Policy Advisor, UN Women South Asia, Ms. Meera Khanna of the Guild of Service and Ms. Usha Rai, Principal Investigator of the Report. To be successful, governmental policies and NGO interventions need to be supported by solid evidence. In order to successfully lobby for governmental re-thinking on policies, to review present pension schemes, to broaden the deprivation indices, very firm factual information is necessary. Keeping this in mind, the Guild of Service, supported by UN Women, did a deprivation Study of the widows of Vrindavan. Why widowhood matters as a social problem in the developing world:

Many more women than men face the likelihood of being widowed for a significant portion of their lives Many women are widowed when they are young and remain widowed the rest of their lives Most widows face customary rules, which restrict their options regarding residence, inheritance, employment and social interactions Many widows cannot depend on support from their in-laws, parents, brothers, or even daughters Given that adult sons are the most reliable source of family support, young widows are economically and socially more vulnerable on average than older widows Every fourth household in India has a widow The numbers are only increasing due to armed conflicts, natural disasters, communal riots and the traditional marriage patterns 50% of the widows are over 50 years of age In the age group of over 60+, 54% are widows In the age group of over 70, 23% of men are widowers, while the corresponding figure for women was 92%