Beaten & begging: all India’s parties ignore the “untouchable” widows

  Last December, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Maitri India found 95-year-old widow Kanchan Dal living and begging on the streets of Radhakund, a small village a few kilometres outside of Vrindavan. Now she is sitting on her bed in Maitri’s recently constructed emergency shelter. Stick-like limbs poke out of her sari at various angles and her right eye is covered by a cloudy cataract. She says she … Continue reading Beaten & begging: all India’s parties ignore the “untouchable” widows

An unlikely partnership: Vrindavan’s widows and a New York fashion designer

Vrindavan, just over 100 miles south of Delhi, exudes the chaos and filth that afflicts many small Indian towns; cows ambling amid noisy traffic, animals rooting through rubbish, and the insistent smell of sewage from the open drains that line the roads. However, it is also regarded as a holy city; where the deity Krishna spent his childhood, according to Hindu scripture. Thousands of destitute … Continue reading An unlikely partnership: Vrindavan’s widows and a New York fashion designer