Volume 5, Number 2
October 1999

Who Supports Widows in Rural India? Household Structure and Maintenance

There are 33 million widows in India. One in four households has a widow. Although widows constitute a large and relatively disenfranchised group of Indian women, their individual welfare has never been measured until now.

The rules, like sati, that we often associate with widowhood in India, apply mainly to the upper castes. More significant are the norms that apply to all widows: (1) Rules of residence (patrilocality) require a couple to live in the man's home/village; more than 80 percent of widowed women remain there rather than return to their home area. (2) Patrilineal inheritance rules mean that a widow has guardianship rights over any inheritance until her son is an adult; she has maintenance, not use, rights if her son is grown; and she has use rights if she has only daughters. And (3) rules of female behavior lead to a gendered division of labor, female seclusion, and structured dependence of women on men.

The projected ideal is that the extended family protects the widow, but in fact 50 percent of widows must manage on their own; widows often cannot claim their use rights (because of a hostile husband's family); and only 40 percent are gainfully employed. Widows have an 85 percent higher mortality rate than married women. The best-off widows are those who are household heads and have sons.

The more complete story lies beyond the numbers. One must ask, for example, about the difference between northern and southern regions (the most vulnerable widows are in the north, where stronger norms and caste divisions exist). Other socioeconomic arrangements also matter—for instance, a widow may be seen as living with household members even though she lives alone and fends for herself on a household's property.

During the discussion that followed Chen's presentation, she noted that she found a noticeable drop in agricultural and salaried work when women became widows, even though widows 30-50 years old had a higher employment rate than married women. Widows have to push the boundaries of what is acceptable work. Widowhood also handicaps children. Chen found that the children of widows have a 20 percent higher mortality rate than other children.

Chen sees women's organizations at the local level as the most effective means of helping widows. A national conference Chen organized led to 10 NGOs in 6 states taking on the needs of widows on the issues of pension schemes and property rights.