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WORLD July 13, 1999 VNN4291 Related VNN Stories Friends of Vrindavan BY MICHAEL DUFFY  VRINDAVAN, INDIA, Jul 13 (VNN) — Jai Sri RadheyThis is a very interesting and emotive point of Seva you have highlighted. I am keen to reply in full to but fear this may lead to many other connected topics and a rather long mail. Reports have appeared in the international press from time to time regarding Vrindavan widows, all I believe have missed the heart of the matter by superficially focusing on the problem yet never seeking the solution. I do not deny that injustices are committed but a positive outlook should also be offered up and my aim here is try and unfold for you some of the practicalities of the problems with their solutions. A week back at the steps of Shah ji Mandir, Vrindavan, I was in a vehicle proceeding to Jai Singh Ghera. A Bengali widow, her legs paralyzed and useless was dragging herself along the road, using wooden handles to keep her hands off the concrete road. I had never seen her before. Observing this from the comfort of a car allowed me the luxury to do nothing, or something. Fortunately we knew exactly what to do and picking up her light body into the back of the car we drove her to Jai Singh Ghera and from there Jagganath Poddar took her in a riksa to her home on Keshi Ghat. The lady is 76, her mother at home 94 ! Next day both of them were moved to a large double room with ceiling fan at the Amar Raj Badi home Gyan Gudri. in Vrindavan. Her leg wound has healed with daily treatment and she is now so happy. The day after she and each of the 45 ladies in this particular home were gifted for their Thakur ji Seva, Maha Tulsi plants. There are several homes for widows and a system does exist in Vrindavan and Vraj. Inevitably some ladies fall through the net as in all societies and some fitter and more mobile people do not wish to be in a home, liking as they do the bustle of street activity and support from there regular donors. One street lady at Chir Ghat that I particularly look for refuses to shift, saying she shall lose the room and the Rs.7, 500 deposit she put down on that room years ago. What if the home kicks me out ? she reasons. There are many stories of rip-offs and cruelty which need not be discussed here in depth, it happens as it does in most countries. In Vrindavan it is far from being the norm. Scams are no doubt perpetrated. More can be done for the widows and efforts are on. I was recently with the Agra Commissioner, the Mathura District Magistrate and from Lucknow the Chief Secretary I.A.S. (Indian Administrative Service) to the Uttar Pradesh State Government. He told us funds had been released by Central Government specifically for the benefit of Vrindavan widows. The C.G suggestion was that hospices were to be built. However the overall practicalities of this are difficult. In Old Vrindavan there is nowhere to build anew, and rightly in my opinion the Distt. Administration is trying to limit construction in Vrindavan lest it merges before long with Mathura and Delhi. They felt that a better option would be to support the present Sewa and Private home system and rent further rooms or properties in town to provide a widow support network of housing and co-operation. A final factor for consideration was that new constructions would encourage more widows to Vrindavan from Bengal, thus exacerbating the local logistics solutions. These funds are already being utilised via agents of the District Administration in renting rooms for widows and hopefully the programme will pick up, overall it will be a reasonably transparent operation and we expect to see statistics in the near future. Geographically and Socially the widows, especially the less mobile prefer to be close to a Bhajan Ashram for several reasons. For example a few weeks back at Bhajan Ashram several thousand sets of utensils and blankets were handed out to widows directly from the hands of a Seth family, something of a procedural first that may herald a more transparent era of seeing where one's donation reaches !. Not all the recipients were widows however, a percentage are still married or earning as house helps, cooks and so on, no doubt at the lowest pay levels but strictly speaking they should not benefit from the Bhajan Ashram largesse. The widows of Vrindavan en masse go to one of 6 Ashrams daily. 4 of those ashrams are closely situated in Gopinath Bazaar, the other 2 at Fogla Ashram and Atkhamba. The majority of ladies live in rooms alone or in groups rented from house owners/landlords across Vrindavan. Approximately 95% of the widows are Bengali, 45% Oriya and other North Eastern states and 1% or so others. Bhajan Ashram is moreorless exclusively Bengali speaking and the widows like to keep it that way ! There are virtually no Brijbashi widows at Bhajan Ashrams. Approximately 27% to 30% of Vrindavan's total permanent population of 55,000 or so are also Bengali, the riksa pullers for example and very approximately 1,000 to 1,500 are widows. You can see 850 or so on any given day at the Bhajan ashrams of Gopinath bazaar. No one knows figures accurately as the last census was a decade ago and Vrindavan has boomed in that period. I would guess that the floating population swells the total population figures of Vrindavan to 70,00 or so on any non-festival period and in Festival time who can say. Overall for the widows I have suggested to you that improvements are manifesting here and now in Vrindavan. Ideally more could be done to firmly diminish the role of a minority of Ôbandits' as you put it, from the network. You have expressed a desire to contribute to an agency to ensure such donations reach their intended recipients, in full which is an essential condition. Everything you point out regarding 10$ or Rs.400 will in one of the homes, shelter, feed and care for a lady for a month, this is correct. Funding specific individuals to look after themselves in their own rooms or in small groups is difficult. The attention required if this programme got going would necessitate a full time individual to monitor VNN's widows. You would have to factor in a local rate salary for someone to do that if the programme grew. Getting things done in Vrindavan can be a time consuming effort, which is easy to forget from overseas. I believe that funding a home which pools their resources to provide fairly for all for milk, food, utilities bills and so on is much the better start option. For example there are 15 places available at Amar Raj Badi for the most needy, which translates to only $150 per month. If you can raise more then purchase ceiling fans for the rooms without them to bring up the standard of the whole facility. The Ô4 extremely emaciated widows' Dahini saw on his bus trip to Vrindavan, whilst visiting India for a week or two perhaps, is no doubt a powerful vision for him, but not necessarily so in the local context. Dahini uses the language of starvation but was not outraged enough to act immediately, only after the event and from the safety of hindsight. Those of us who want to help but do not know how to or are not able to so physically interact need facilitators to act for us, this is generally what charities do. Unfortunately I do not know of any organisation based in Raman Reti being able to handle this, nor do I see the Management of the M.V.T. desiring to or being able to do so. Preferably VNN needs an agency which is presently active and known in Vrindavan and also amongst the Bengali community with Bengali speakers on staff. An agency having a track record with Community and Administration is advantageous especially if that record reflects an integrity and experience; Friends of Vrindavan can provide this. FoV are an active Sewa organisation, a registered tax exempt trust in India, the U.K. and the U.S.A. Our main activities are Vrindavan street cleaning, sacred Kund (e.g., Man sarovar) and forest restoration (e.g., Jaipur Mandir), Sapling and plant nurseries (x 3 Ð one in collaboration with Iskcon Gurukala students at the Iskcon goashala) and environmental activism. FoV employs 36 staff at present in cleaning and greening activities. FoV has a contract for the cleaning of three hospitals, one at the Mathura refinery, FoV also has a contract with the I.M.A. (Indian Medical Association) to collect from 40 or so clinics, homes and hospitals, bio-medical wastes for delivery to a high temperature incinerator. These contracts are staffed by Vrindavan safai karam chari's from Kishor Pura. The operations are supervised by two Senior Karam chari's. We are presently negotiating with the M.V.D.A. (Mathura Vrindavan Development Authority) for funding for a two-year package of a mobile cleaning task force. The main bazaar of Vrindavan, Loi Bazaar is cleaned only by FoV, this work is partly funded by the traders. Friends of Vrindavan is the now the only active environmental Non Governmental Organisation in Vrindavan dedicated to unconditional non-profit making Sewa. FoV is primarily concerned with the environment. What is very evident in Vrindavan and Vraj is that the natural resources and biomass are rapidly collapsing under the pressure of supplying us human's fresh water from the aquifer beneath the earth. The ground water is toxic to 30 meters, Yamuna ji is one of the world's filthiest rivers. Fodder for cows for milk and other competing livestock have left the Krishna Leela-van groves and forests virtually extinct. Man sarovar was restored by FoV, clogged with water hyacinth FoV dredged this, replanted, stocked the lake with fish and again it is returning to a natural bird sanctuary. I have been working closely with the Commissioner at Agra and Mathura District Administration preparing presentations to the State and Central Governments for funding for community and infra structural projects. These projects include the construction of a Ôgarbage recycling plant' which could produce Vraj Ôgobar' rich manure for sale to farmers; the goal being to replace chemical nitrates fertilisers which slowly poison the land (a farmer uses more incrementally to produce the same crop yield). Leaching of water down to the aquifer pollutes the drinking water and Yamuna ji. The barrage at Gokul comes into operation in a year or so raising the level of the river which will assist in recharging the aquifer but it could also become a virtual sewer if the river flow is held back at Gokul. The Yamuna flow is already less than required to cleanse her each year. At Dakpattar in the Himalayan foothills where Yamuna flows onto the plains, two huge canals empty her of 85% or so of her fresh water. Not a single drop of Saptarishi Kund source water above Yamunotri reaches Vrindavan. Is she a Goddess any longer ? The Yamuna Action Plan is working on providing trunk sewage lines to treatment farms; anti riverbank defecation laws have been passed and other projects are in action to help stem the pollution locally of the Yamuna. Eco friendly Sulabh latrine blocks on Parikrama path and other locations are planned. Reforestation and protection of the green belt which runs between Vrindavan and Mathura and Vrindavan and the National Highway at Chattikara is commencing any day now; a total ban on any new constructions at any time in the future in this belt is likely and is also being lobbied for by this NGO. Parking facilities, one way traffic systems, banning vehicles from inner Vrindavan entry, Resident vehicle permits etc, all constitute a raft of proposals under consideration and up for funding. Since Independence there has never been such collaboration between Administration and Community. The proposals outlined above will be managed by a recently inaugurated ÔNidhi' trust, The Executive of the trust is 40% Administration and 60% Community. This clearly illustrates the I.A.S. desire to decentralise and partner the planning, funding and implementation of community projects with community. Therefore a series of meetings over the past few months has brought Vrindavan to the verge of a co-operative, holistic solution-seeking initiative. It may sound fanciful but the potential exists for all concerned parties to co operate via the ÔNidhi'. That is a brief overview of the approach being taken by this evolving partnership between Government and Civil Society. Returning to the widows, Friends of Vrindavan would be pleased to partner VNN's Sewa endeavours but I feel initially this may need to be a Ôsupport the widows homes' programme. We have the staff and the office premises at Chotta Munghir to take this on and to manage and document the project and FoV is known across Vrindavan. In return FoV can provide digital photos over the net of the homes, the sponsored ladies and updates for the web site with additional illustrated Vraj environmental despatches for VNN on the range of topics outlined above. In short VNN if agreeable could host FoV a regular spot on the VNN site and home page ? FoV does not have a web site, I'm not sure we need it or have the time to deal with it. As VNN is looking for an honest and trustworthy agent in Vrindavan we are seeking a host to disseminate the practical and environmental information. I like the VNN site for its impartiality as this reflects FoV's position as an egalitarian organisation. Krishna the Supreme environmentalist held aloft Goverdhan and banished the serpent from Yamuna ji, for the benefit of all, without condition. This teaching we apply to our Seva. Maybe we can start with this reply and discuss how best to offer it up to VNN viewers along with plans for a donation and support system ? Feel free to edit and send me back your suggestions before doing so and I will send some digital pictures of the home, conditions, the ladies mentioned above etc. My name is michael duffy and I am the secretary to the trustees of FoV, they are: - Shri Shrivatsa Goswami Shri Sevak Sharan Shri Ranchor Prime Shri Trikalajna Das Shri Rangit Bharagava Saprem. Related VNN Stories  Comment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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