About the Book: Speaking (Of) Widows: The Unseen and the Unheard
With over 40 million widows—highest in the world—India confronts widowhood not
just as loss, but as a gendered crisis marked by centuries of beliefs, taboos,
rituals, discriminatory practices and economic exclusion. Speaking (of) Widows,
a powerful volume from the Gender Equity Studies, Centre of Janki Devi Memorial
College and the Guild of Service, attempts to bring together cultural critique,
legal analysis, and grassroots research—including voices of Vrindavan widows.
Bridging theory and activism, it calls for urgent policy reform and a
reimagining of widowhood with dignity and justice at its core.
About the Author: Namita Sethi, Vasiraju Rajyalakshmi,