They have made a difference in the policy in Himachal Pradesh for ‘single women’ in distress through continuous struggle over the last 14 years when they go together. Still, they have to battle it out every day as they are not getting the benefit of policies due to complexities and attitude on the ground.

In a two-day meeting of the members of the Ekal Nari Shakti Sangthan (ENSS) with officials from different departments in Shimla on 25 and 26 June, the single women, including widows, divorced and deserted women from the state, discussed their problems and came out with a demand charter.

The first and foremost demand of the single women forum is to include the name of every woman (involved in farming) in the revenue documents at the time of marriage.

“This would reduce the cases of domestic violence and the names then would not be able to sell the land on their own. The demand is genuine as 80 per cent of women are engaged in farming in Himachal,” said state coordinator of ENSS, Nirmal Chandel. She said the NITI Aayog has already advised the state government in this regard.

Another issue that cropped up in the meeting was of the deserted women who are neither getting any benefit from their in-laws, having separated, nor at parent’s house (from where her name is cut at the time of marriage) till the time her divorce case is pending.

The single women shared that the cases of divorce of poor village women, who don’t have resources, remain pending for years and sometimes stretch beyond 10 years for many reasons.

“Such women, who are deserted, can’t avail any government scheme as their names are not registered anywhere. They can’t even have a ration card. We have taken this up with the state government that in Uttarakhand, the deserted women get rights after one year and in Rajasthan after three years. It should be done in Himachal also so that the ‘deserted women’ are able to fend for their families by taking the benefit of government schemes,” said Chandel.

Many other single women, divorces and widows, shared that they are being denied the benefit due to them in different schemes.

The ENSS members said the government has included single women in many schemes but the benefits are not percolating to them because of resistance at Panchayat level. “Even for women above 70 years of age, the local authorities are asking for income certificate and are denying them the benefit of social security pension whereas the government has said that no income criterion is there for the elderly citizens above 70 years of age. The poor single women are being made to run from pillar to post in vain,” she said.

Based on the problems faced by single women day to day, the ENSS urged the government to increase the income criterion to avail various state schemes to Rs 60,000 per annum. “The criterion of Rs 35000 income per annum is too less and it only leads to ousting the single women in their claims. Any woman, who works as a daily wager and earns Rs 3000 per month, adds up Rs 36000 per annum,” said Nirmal Chandel.

She said the ENSS wants the government to increase the social security pension for single women to Rs 3000 per month for their dignified living. “Our demand for Nyaya Panchayats in Himachal, as we used to have long back, to help single women get access to justice is still pending,” she said.

Chandel said the ENSS will soon submit a representation to Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on their demands.

ENSS is a 16,000 member strong forum working for the dignified living of single women (widows, divorcees, unmarried and deserted women) in Himachal.