The single women in India are not allowed to have separate ration cards, job cards and BPL cards. They also face problems in access to healthcare and property rights. According to the 2001 census, there are 36 million single women. But the activists hold that the Indian Government still follows the conservative methods while taking census by excluding abandoned, deserted and unmarried women from the list.
Tracing the history of single women’s movements in India, it began in Rajasthan in 2000 as a modest initiative under the banner of Ekal Nari Shakti Sangathan and soon spread to Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. These organizations address the problems facing by the single women especially widows who are subjected to many kinds of atrocities by the in-laws and caught between the rigid social and religious customs after the death of their husbands.
These organizations have tasted success in many states. In Himachal, the Sangathan has been able to get separate ration cards for single women while in Rajasthan the organisation has lobbied for joint registration for land rights.
Now, the National Forum for Single Women's Rights is expected to lobby for schemes, laws and policies for such women besides immediate relief measures like separate ration cards and social security pension for poor, single women. Amongst other issues that the Forum plans to take up are canvassing for equal property rights irrespective of religion or community and an effective law to tackle atrocities against women.
The seminar discussed various demands ranging from separate ration cards for single women to categorising abandoned single women in national census. They also submitted memorandum of their demands with 24,000 signatures to the Prime Minister.
