Widows turn sex workers here

Vijaysinh Parmar TNN Kharaghoda (Surendranagar): At 70, Kamuben (name changed), widow of an agariya or salt pan worker, should have been living the quiet life of a grandmother. Instead, she is a prostitute, a profession she took to eight years ago after her son died of TB. Not eligible for government pension, this was all she could do to survive. The salt pans of Kharaghoda are pristine white, but the dark shadow of death is an unshakeable reality here. So harsh are the living conditions that on an average one man dies here every week. Some of the widows take to prostitution, their only weapon to fight hunger and death. So, will the killing fields of Kharaghoda come up for discussion when the national seminar on salt workers, involving government officials, experts and salt workers from across the country, starts in Ahmedabad on Friday? Here are some statistics they may want to consider. In 2002, Kharaghoda had 300 widows. In 2007, there were 495. Nearly 50 women in this village of 3,000 homes, most of them widows between 40 and 45 years, have taken to prostitution. Dr Rajesh Thakur of the local public health centre says life expectancy of a man in Kharaghoda is 45 years. “TB, coupled with the harsh conditions, is a major killer,” he says. Adds sarpanch Virsing Thakore: “The widows live in abject poverty but they have not been identified as below poverty line people.” The government gives pension to only those widows whose sons are below 21 years. That makes only 15 widows eligible in Kharaghoda! “I would get Rs 80 a day for just two months if I labour in the salt pans,” says mother of two grown-up chi dren, Kanchan (name changed), 38, who has taken to prostitution. “Selling myself is the only option I have to ensure my children don’t die of hunger.” “On the one hand, the government stops pension to those women whose children have grown up, and on the other, there are 60 widows in the village who have been abandoned by their children. We need a shelter for these women so that they can live respectable lives,” says Ambu Patel, a resident of the village.