Organisation urges Centre to set up National Widows' Rights Commission
Mumbai (PTI): A Maharashtra-based voluntary organisation has appealed to the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development to establish an independent National Widows' Rights Commission to address "systemic and lifelong injustices".
Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal (MPSSM) said widowed women in India face social ostracisation, denial of property and inheritance rights, economic insecurity, psychological trauma, and heightened sexual vulnerability.
These issues are not adequately addressed by existing institutional mechanisms, it said.
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In its representation to the ministry, the organisation stated that despite Constitutional guarantees of equality and dignity under Articles 14, 15 and 21, there is no exclusive statutory body that focuses specifically on the unique and long-term vulnerabilities of widows.
The proposal notes that while women's commissions function at the national and state levels, their broad mandate limits focused attention on widows' issues, leading to gaps in grievance redressal, monitoring and accountability.
Calling widowed women a "structurally vulnerable group" comparable to other constitutionally recognised categories, MPSSM has proposed the creation of National and State Widows' Rights Commissions with the power to inquire into complaints, summon reports from police and administrative authorities, and make time-bound recommendations, including registration of FIRs and legal action where required.
It demanded that the commission be empowered to suggest rehabilitation measures, financial assistance schemes and amendments to existing laws, and submit annual reports to Parliament or state legislatures.
MPSSM president Pramod Zinjade said the establishment of a dedicated Widows' Rights Commission was a "constitutional necessity and moral obligation" to restore dignity, security and human rights of widowed women and to eliminate regressive social practices.
Zinjade said he has also written to the United Nations seeking the establishment of an International Widows' Rights Commission (IWRC).
He has been leading a campaign in rural Maharashtra to eradicate evil customs related to widows. Several villages have passed unanimous resolutions banning such customs.
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Gurugram Police arrest BJP Yuva Morcha member for spreading fake murder story on social media
New Delhi: Gurugram Police have arrested BJP Yuva Morcha member Hariom Mishra, for allegedly spreading a fabricated and communally sensitive story on social media about the murder of a college student in Gurugram.
Mishra who is also known as Shaurya Mishra had shared a collage of four photographs on his X handle earlier this month. He claimed that a 24-year-old college student, identified as Nikita Agarwal, had been murdered by her classmate Arif Khan in Gurugram. In the post, he alleged that the woman was blackmailed, forced into prostitution, gangraped, and eventually killed. He also claimed that Arif dumped her body in a forest. The claims were presented as being based on police sources.
The post went viral and garnering over 1.5 lakh views, and was amplified by several right-wing social media handles across X, Facebook and Instagram. A verification of the claims revealed that no such incident had taken place in Gurugram. A search of credible news reports showed no record of any such murder. The police said this news would have inevitably attracted media attention if it were true.
On December 11, Gurugram Police publicly refuted the claims through their official X handle. They stated that the information which was being circulated was completely false. The police warned that legal action would be taken against those spreading misinformation. Despite the warning, Mishra neither deleted the post nor issued any clarification.
Police in Gurugram confirmed Mishra's arrest on December 16. The police said a FIR was filed after he continued to spread false information about the alleged murder of a Hindu woman by Muslim man. Police said Mishra, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Kaushambi district, is now being investigated.
Gurugram Police spokesperson Sandeep Singh told The Print that the accused had deliberately misrepresented facts and used objectionable content to spread hatred along religious lines. “Such posts can create serious disturbances in society, and the police take these matters very seriously,” he said.
A reverse image search conducted by fact-checkers at Alt News, revealed that the photographs used in the viral post were unrelated to the claims, while two of the images were traced to a Pinterest account belonging to influencer Maulik Chopra and another image was sourced from an Instagram post by influencer Shivam Thakur featuring a woman named Deepanshi Rawat. The fourth image was found on an unrelated Instagram page. The images depicted different individuals and had no connection to any crime.
Police said they are also investigating Mishra’s motive behind sharing the false and provocative content.
