Environment And Consumer Protection Foundation v. Union Of India & Ors .

Judgment

CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (Civil) No. 659of2007. Under Article 32 of the Constitution oflndia. WITH

W. P. (C) Nos. 168 and 133 of2012. Ranjit Kumar, SG, Jugal Kishore Gilda, D. K. Singh, AAGs, A. K. Panda, Sr. Adv,, Ravindra Bana, Rono Mohanty, Ms. Anitha Shenoy, Ms. Srishti Agnihotri, Ms. Sneha Mukherjee. Ms. Jyoti D Mendiratta, Nischal Kumar, Ms. Vimla Sinha, Vibhu Shanker Mishra, Raj Bahadur Yadav, R.R. Rajesh. Ms. Sushma Suri, G. S. Makkar, S. N. Terdal, Dr. S. K. Verma, Ms. Gargi Tuli,ArindamMukherjee, Ms. Aparna Bhat, Ms. Joshita Pai, Gopal Singh, Shreyas Jain, Aniruddh P. Mayee, C. Mahindrakar, A. Selvin Raja, A.M. Oza, Chirag Jain, E D. S. Mahra, Varinder Kumar Sharma, Abraham C. Mathews, Nishe Rajen Shanker, Mrs. Anu K. Joy. V.N. Raghupathy, Parikshit P. Angadi, Ms. Swarupama Chaturvedi, Nishant R. Katneswarkar, Ashok Kumar . Singh, Ranjan Mukherjee, Pragyan Pradip Sharma. Shikhar Garg, P.V. Yogeswaran, Mrs. K. Enatoli Sema, Edward Belho, Amit Kumar Singh, K. Luikang Michael, Ms. Elix Gangmei, Z. H. Isaac Haiding, F Ms. Aruna Mathur, Avneesh Arputham, Ms. Anuradha Arputham, Amit Arora (For Mis Arputham Aruna & Co.), M. Yogesh Kanna, S. Nithya Srinivasan, Ms. Maha Lakshmi, Partha Sarathi, Gopal Singh, Rituraj Biswas, Adarsh Upadhyay, Anurag Kishore, Utkarsh Sharma, Ms. Nandini Sen, Charichal Ganguly, K.V. Jagdishvaran, Mrs. G. Indira, G V.G. Pragasam, S. Prabu Ramasubramanian, Sudarshan Singh Rawat, Ad vs. for the appearing parties.

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by

MADAN B. :LOKUR, J. 1. These petitions were filed and taken up in public interest are intended to bring back some sunshine in the lives of the widows in Vrindavan and in ashrams elsewhere in the country. It is a pity that these widows have been so unfortunately dealt with, as if B they have ceased to be entitled to live a life of dignity and as if they are not entitled to the protection of Article 21 of the Constitution.

2. The petitioner, Environment and Consumer Protection Foundation is a registered charitable society and a non-political body. It filed a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution essentially for an appropriate writ requiring the Union of India and the State of Uttar Pradesh to take all steps to rehabilitate the widows ofVrindavan so as to bring them to a stage where they can live with dignity.

3. The petition was filed on the basis ofan article 'White Shadows of Vrindavan' written by Atul STuthi and published in the New Delhi D edition of the Times oflndia of25 March, 2007. The apparent intention of the article was to report and bring to the notice of the public and the government agencies the pathetic and shocking conditions ofthe widows living in Vrindavan - begging in temples and then huddling together in hovels. Broadly speaking, the article described the city ofVrindavan in which abandoned widows live a hand to mouth existence like white E shadows thus giving the city another name that is the City of Widows. According to the author no one knows since when these widows have been coming toVrindavan but most of them are from West Bengal and their life stories often follow a similar pattern which is the death of the husband, relatives leaving them in Vrindavan. days spent singing prayers F and begging at temples where they live on a day to day basis. Most widows refuse to go back to their village or home, even if they are given a chance to do so, saying that now this is our home.

4. According to the author, the widows congregate in some ashrams or temples where they sing bhajans and are paid about Rs. 18 G per day for about 7 to 8 hours of singing. The rest of their time is spent begging on the streets. Many of them are too old to look after themselves requiring others to pool in their resources to look after them. Overall, the article paints a rather tragic and dismal picture of the living conditions of the widows in Vrindavan.

5. On reading the article. the petitioner addressed a letter to the A District Magistrate in Mathura and brought to his notice its contents and sought further information on what was stated therein. A reply was sent to the petitioner to the effect that necessary steps were being taken to improve the living condition of the widows. There was some correspondence in this regard for a couple of months but to no real B effect. It is this sequence of events that persuaded the petitioner to file a petition in this Court with the prayer as aforesaid.

6. This Court took up the petition in publ~c interest and passed certain significant directions; For example, on 14 November, 2008 the National Commission for Women was directed to prepare a comprehensive report on the problems faced by the widows. It was also C directed that the report should contain the age groups of the widows, their family background and all other information relevant for the purposes of this case. st

7. On I April, 2011 the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the G1fi,vernment of India was imp leaded as one of the respondents D and on 9 May. 2012 this Comt directed that in order to mitigate the miseries of the widows, a Special Committee should be constituted to undertake an exercise of identification and enumeration of the destitute in Vrindavan - both those having shelter and those wandering in the streets without any shelter. The Committee was required to collect E complete data of the widows including the reason for their shifting to Vrindavan and particulars about their family and their present source of mcome.

8. Several other orders were passed from time to time more particularly from 2015 onwards when the Social Justice Bench was constituted by the Hon'ble Chief Justice of India. As a result, a very large number of reports were generated and concerned authorities like the National Commission for Women, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the State ofUttar Pradesh began taking considerable interest in the problems faced by the widows ofVrindavan. The reports generated from time to time are as follows:

l. Summary Report (undated) of the Situation Analysis of Widows in Religious Places of West Bengal prepared by Jayaprakash Institute of Social Change DD - 18/4/l, Salt Lake City, Kolkata- 700 064. This is filed in W.P. No.133 of2012.

Status Report (undated) filed by National Legal Services Authority, Delhi Legal Services Authority and by National Commission for Women.

3. Study by the National Commission for Women in 2009-10 on widows in Vrindavan.

Minutes of the Meeting held on I 01h May, 2011 by the Secretary Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Repott filed by National Legal Services Authority dated I 4'h July, 20 12. This is filed in W.P. No. 133 of 2012 on 26th July, 2012.

6. A Report dated I O'h September, 2012 on Measures taken for compliance of Hl?n'ble Supreme Court Order dated 03-08-2012 And Few Ground Realities With Some Reforms Immediately Required by Secretary District Legal Service Authority, Addi. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mathura. This is filed in W.P. No.133of2012.

7. Plight ofForesaken/Forlorn Women -Old and Widows Living in Vrindavan & Radhakund, Mathura (U.P.) - A Survey Report dated J0 1hNovember, 2012 by District Legal Services Authority, Mathura. This is tiled in W.P. No.133 of2012.

Rep01t of the Member Secreta1y, National Legal Services Authority dated l 4'h January, 2014 filed in W.P. No. 133 of 2012 on l 2'h September, 2014.

9. Report of the Secretaty, District Legal Services Authority at Mathura dated 31" March, 2014. I 0. Status Report filed by Ms. Renuka Kumar on I61hApril, 2015.

11. Minutes of the Meeting held by the Secretary, Ministry of Women and Child Development on 2°ct September, 2015.

12. Status Report filed on ll th March, 2016 on behalfof State of Uttar Pradesh.

13. Report by Ms. Renuka Kumar dated l 91hApril, 20 l 6 on 17 homes administered by the U.P. Mahila Kalyan Nigam.

14. Status Report dated 28'h April, 2016 by the National A Commission for Women of28.04.2016 giving some preliminary recommendations.

15. Status report along with budget requirement submitted by .Ms. Renuka Kumar on 31" August, 2016.

16. Status Report on widows in Swadhar Homes in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Odisha by the National Commission for Women in November, 2016.

17. Report on the medical facilities for widows and destitute women in Vrindavan submitted by Ms. Renuka Kumar on 8'h November, 2016.

18. Affidavit in compliance filed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on 2nd June, 2017 concerning order dated 2l"April,2017.

9. With the plethora of repotis and material available and with the generous assistance given and deep involvement of all learned counsel, we found it more appropriate to request them to give us agreed directions that could be issued to mitigate the discomfort of the widows ofVrindavan. Accordingly, the following order was passed on 29'h March, 2017: "Ms. Aparna Bhat, learned counsel appearing for the National Commission for Women and Mr. A.K. Panda, learned senior counsel appearing for the Ministry of Women and Child Development assisted by Ms. Pushpa Bisht, Deputy Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development say that it will be appropriate if agreed directions are formulated and issued so that immediate steps are taken to improve the conditions of widows in different parts of the country. Learned counsel for the parties say that either they or their representatives will sit together and come out with a Iist of agreed directions which may be passed by this Court on 6'h April, 2017.''

I 0. Unfortunately, perhaps due to some misunderstanding or a lack of effective communication, agreed directions could not be finalized till l8'h July, 2017. On that date the learned Solicitor General handed

A over an Agreed Action Plan. The Agreed Action Plan with our comment on some issues is given in the table below:

c ·. ',

AGREED ACTION PLAN Directions Action Plan of Our Comment proposed by the the Ministry of National Women and Commission for Child Women Develonment l. Create an The Ministry of The Aadhaar · interactive data" Women and enabled software base which would Child wi II, of course, be · provide access fur Development will subject to the homes to Inpuf . develop .pending litigation in this Court. · information as appropriate Aadhaar· enabled soon as a widow enters their software for system. The capturing data database must concerning have a profile of inmates of the widow to be Swadhar Greh able to understand within next six her needs [and months and, if needs to be necessary, an updated] as soon external agency as a widow enters will be engaged the system .. The fur it. Access, to the extent portal can be required, will be created by the government with provided to access given to different registered homes stakeholders and to provide their the agency inputs. The entrusted with the Government of development of India has initiated the software will such a programme be asked to build for the purposes in adequate of adoption. safeguards to protect the confidentiality of the info1mation.

· FOUNDATION v. UNION OF INDIA [MADAN B. LOKUR, J.)

Widows with ,, fumilies must be identified and their ramilies must be counseled for taking care of them and in cases where requiroo · legal action, as warranted, may be taken.

Family counseling centres v.ork:ing under Central Social Welfare Board (CSWB) and State Social Welfare Boards (SSWB) across the country will be entrustoo with the responsibility of identifying widows who have families. The progress of the work done will be compiled by the CSWB evety month and a report sent to the Ministry every quarter, The CSWB will, in consultation with other stakeholders, be asked to develop a suitable module for counseling families within a period of six months and, thereafter, review and update it as and when required.

The fo II ow-up post counselling should be made clear and particularly in cases \merethefamily. does not take care of the widow even after being counselled.

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NALSAmust create a mechanism to enable homes to access Iegal aid.

NALSA/DALSA will be advised to provide legal aid to the inmates of Swadhar Greh within l 5 days of the acceptance of the plan of action by the Hon 'ble Supreme Court.

Public ~ctor organizatiorn must be encouraged to contribute certain percentage of their CSR funds for a Widows Management Fund which would be ~d for developing vocational trainings for widows. The govemmert must actively explore medical insurances for all widows and at least widows that are housed in the Swadhar Homes so that good medical fucilities can be accessed by the widows.

(2017] 9 S.C.R.

The Ministl)' of Women and Child Development has already taken up the matter with the Department of Public Enterprises and Ministl)' of Corporate Affairs. The matter Siall be further pW'sued with them.

The concerned Mini&ry Siould be advised that the fund is intended to assist and benefit destitute widows.

In all States and Union Territories, medicines are provided free of cost to the patierts through the Common Health Centres and A:imary Health Certres under tre National Health Mission of the Ministl)' of Health & Family Welfure. It may, therefore, not be necessary to introduce medical insurance as s.1ch a measure coidd take away a portion of the income of widows and impoverish them further. The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has been requesred to advise all State Governments and Union Tenitol)' administrations to ensure that access to free medicines is ensured to all those &aying in Swadhar Homes.

The benefit of the rupply offree medicines should be made available to destitute women as well. Availability of free rredical u·eatment reeds consideration.

• ENVIRONMENT AND CONSUMER PROTECTION

Homes must be linked to existing Government Programmes. Homes must be encouraged to open more avenues for employing the widows in the care and hospitality sector than sticking to tailoring etc. which do nor provide economically viable employment to the widows and henoe compels them to stay in these homes.

TI1e Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has been requested to prepare a plan of action for development of skills of widows; and orphan, destitute and marginalized women through sectoral skill development councils. They have also been requested to monitor the progress in this regani at regular intervals. The Ministry of Women &Child Development will I continue to engage with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to ensure development of suit ab le modules for skill development.

Staff of Swadhar Home must be trained periodically and should be adequately and appropriately, compensated financially.

The National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child ~velopment (NIPCCD) under the Ministry of Women & Chi Id Development is already mandated to provide training to dif:terent stakeholders including the staff of Swadhar Greh. Depending upon training needs assessment, the CS WB can al so be entrusted with this responsibility. Provision has been made for imparting induction training and subsequent periodic training on regular intervals of time to the staff of Swadhar Greh.

Immediate action to be taken to improve the infrastructure of the Homes and fonds to maintain it.

In addition to the Swadhar Greh Scheme being implemented through out the country, the Ministry of Women & Chi Id Development has commenced construction of a new I000 bedded Swadhar Greh at, Vrindavan, Distt. Mathura. lt has been designed to be old age friendly and will have dormitories with attached teilet and utility balconies. The Swalhar Greh will also have facility for physiotherapy, open theatre, vocational training, sola- PY, solar water heating system, multipurpose hall, etc. TI1e expected date of completion of this Swalhar Greh is Janua-y, 2018.

State Governments should be encouraged to adopt the model planned by the Ministry.

ENVIRONMENT AND .CONSUMER PROTECTION .

PENSION l.

It was found· that the current allocation of pension was either inadequate or nonexistent. The primruy concerns that arose out of the research oos that the pension amounts were not linked to the cost of living. There was no rationai calculation for the amount~ or the ceiling in the number of beneficiaries that the pension could be given to in any given State. Pension should be based on the Cost of Living Index and hence it should be.on par with the rrummum wage of an unskilled worker with corresponding in crease as the minimum wage increases.

The comparison between the amount of pension provided by the Government and the minimum wages payable under various government schemes is not fuir. While, pension is paid as a welfure measure without any services being rendered by the beneficiary, ooges is the remuneration for the selVices rendered by the wage earner. If the two were to be equal, it will be a major disincentive to able bodied person to do any work

Pension, as a m:lfare measure might to be linked with the cost of living index and should not be arbitrarily fixed.

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONING OF SHELTERS l.

A Multi-optional model be employed for institutionalized shelters. The shelters can be built to cater the requirement of the user on the basis of a corresponding userfee for an overnight shelter, a day shelter or a fulltime shelter.

Direct the integration The two schemes of Swadhar Homes, Swadhar Homes and . Short Stay Homes short stay home> and other similarly placed of the Ministry facility homes to of Women & Child facilitate a smoother Development have implementation of the . already been merged policies directed for into the new widow rehabilitation. scheme namely Swadhar Greh w.e.f. 01.0l.2016. This scheme is -implemented by the State Government/ UT Administration with funding from Govt. oflndia.

User-fee> can be paid by a person who is earning. Swadhar scheme caters to women who are in the abyss of poverty and payment of any user-fee by them would be beyond their means. [However, woiking women hostels will be encouraged to be established by the States and Union Territories.] Social audits should be conducted with regard to implementation of the schemes.

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Enhance the ceiling limit of three years on the women staying in Swadhar Homes in order to effectively stabilize the lives of the inmates.

The proposal for enhancing the limit for staying in Swadhar Greh for women beneficiaries above 55 years of age is under consideration of the Government and a decision in this regard will be taken shortly.

Structural integration of old age homes into shelters; To this end, medical assessment of Women b-etween the age of 60 to 65 years of age in the shelters be conducted on the basis of which the women can continue to reside in the shelters.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been requested to accommodate widows from Swadhar Greh to Old Age Home on attaining age of 60 years. The required medical facilities will be tied up by agencies concerned with the local CHCs/PHCs.

HEALTH AND NUTRITION I.

To integrate the effurts of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana info the Swadhar Scheme. Linkage of homes that house old women with medical dispensaries is recommended.

As stated above, free medicines are provided by CHCs and PHCs to all patients under the NHM of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and the Ministry has been requested to advise all State Governments and Union Territory administrations to ensure that access to free medicines is ensured to all those staying in Swadhar Homes.

Utilization of the Widow Pension Scheme for procuring medical facilities.··

COVERAGE OF LEGAL FEES AND EXPENSES

I.

Widow pension is paid to individuals. In the light of the availability of medicines free of cost, as stated above, it may not be necessary to divert the pension amount for purchase of . medicines.

NALSAand DALSAto allocate appropriate sanctions to cover the legal exjienses of the widows involved in legal matters, and the incidental expenses incurred for commuting and so on and so forth.

The inmates of Swadhar Greh will have access to free legal aid provided by NALSNDALSA and necessary advisory will be issued in this regard.

VOCATIONAL TRAINING .

l. Mandatoiy and organized vocational training of the women in the shelters to imp art skill sets necessary for an ordinary life and to e.nable them to earn a dignified livelihood. I

'

.,

As stated above, the Ministty of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has been requested to prepare a plan of action for development of skills of widows and orphan, destitute and marginalized women through sectoral skill development councils. They have also been requested to monitor the progress in this regard at regular intervals. The Ministry of Women & Child Development will continue to engage with the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship to ensure development of suitable modules.

I

GRANT OF SANCTIONS I.

Periodic and timely release of grants to facilitate the continuance and sustenance of the homes.

I.

The financial Thenonns nonns of Swadhar should be Greh Scheme have reviewed every been revised w.e.f. six months. 01.01.2016 and on further examination, the Department of Expenditure has opined that these are adequate fur the time being.

PERIODIC REVIEW OF THE HOMES

Enhancement of sanctions by the Ministiy to provide the concerned agencies with a budget necessary for the proper. functioning of the homes.

That the National Commission for Women be directed to conduct a review to study the existing status of widows in the homes in our country in the near future.

The National Commission for Women may take appropriate action for taking the proposed review to study the existing status of widows in homes.

FOUNDATION v. UNION OF INDIA [MADAN B. LOKUR, J.)

The Ministry ought nott.o be stingy with fundsespecially for a good cause.

To this end, grants be sanctioned by the Rural Ministry, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and the Ministry of Women and Children fort he survey to be conducted by the NCW.

National Commission for Women may carry out their study out of the existing funds available with them. Additional funds if sought by them will be made subject to availability of funds.

3.. Mandate a periodic review of the homes every five years iit the State and District Level to conduct periodic inspections of the homes to ensure the proper implementation of the schemes and the functioning of the homes and the records monitored by the DPO (District Project Officer).

The Swadhar Greh Scheme has an inbuilt monitoring mechanism. The monitoring of Homes is undertaken through a three tiered structure viz. District Level, State Level and the Central Level. Swadhar Greh will be sanctioned initially for a period of five years. After implementation of the scheme for 5 years, the Project Sanctioning Committee shall decide on its farther continuance or otherwise depending on its performance and need

Annually for 3. years and then every 3 years.

.F

I

CREATION OF AWARENESS

1. To engage at 1ural an:! district levels to spread awareress of the existence of the scherres akin to swadhar hemes an:! to imput knowledge of the rig)lts exercisable by the wcmen in similarly pl a:ed s ituatiom.

The SW!rlhar Greh Scherre is being it1l>le1rented ~ the State Goverrunents. 111e States/UTs wII gererate a'Mll'eress about Swadhar Greh an:! dissemirnte infcrmati oo about Swadhir Greh throug)l variCllls rrnci:s. As a put of the scheme, guici:lines have already reen isstm by the Ministry ofWcrnen & Child Develoixmnt.

11. It is also our opinion that the effort put in by all concerned in the reports that we have adverted to above should not go waste - it E must be gainfully utifized, being in a sense a gold mine of pragmatic and workable suggestions. Accordingly, we constitute a Committee to study all the reports filed in this Court and provide us with a common working plan (based on the suggestions in the reports) within a period of two months and in any case on or before 30th November, 2017. The Committee shall consist of the following (the first two suggested by the F learned Solicitor General on instructions from the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the third by learned counsel for the National Commission for Women): I. Ms. Suneeta Dhar of NGO Jagori,

2. Ms. Meera Khanna of Guild for Service

3. Ms. Abha Singhal Joshi, Lawyer and activist

4. A nominee of HelpAge India, an NGO that has rendered valuable assistance in this case.

5. A nominee ofSulabh International, an NGO that has rendered valuable assistance in this case,

6. Ms. Aparajita Singh, a lawyer practising in this Court to provide A any assistance on legal issues.

12. One of the issues adverted to during the hearing of the petitions, but not mentioned in any of the reports, is the need to encourage widow remarriage. This is a subject of hope that might enable our society to give up the stereotype view of widows. We request the Committee to . consider this during its.deliberations.

13. We request the National Commission for Women, in public interest, to assist in providing some working space to the Committee. We propose to adequately remunerate the Committee with an honorarium that will be decided when the matter is next heard. 'I:he Registry will ensure that all the reports are made available to the members of the Committee.

14. Why are the Action Plan and these directions necessary? We seem to be forgetting the power of Public Interest Litigation and therefore need to remind ourselves, from time to time, of its efficacy in providing D social justice. Many years ago, this Court noted in People's Unio11/or Democratic Rig/its v. Union of India 1 that "Public in1erest litigation is brought before the court not for the purpose of enforcing the right of one individual against another as happens in the case of ordinary litigation, but it is intended to promote and vindicate public interest which demands that violations of constitutional or legal rights of large numbers of people who are poor, ignorant or in a socially or economically disadvantaged position should not go unnoticed and unredressed. That would be destructive of the rule of law which forms one of the essential elements of public interest in any democratic form of Government."

A little later in the judgment, it was said: "Millions of persons belonging to the deprived and vulnerable sections of humanity are looking to the courts for improving their life conditions and making basic human rights meaningful for them. G They have been crying for justice but their cries have so far been in the wilderness. They have been suffering injustice silently with the patience of a rock, without the strength even to shed any tears."

(1982)3 sec 235

15. The advantage of public interest litigation is not only to empower the economically weaker sections of society but also to empower those suffering from social disabilities that may not necessarily of their making. The widows ofVrindavan (and indeed in other ashrams) quite clearly fall in this category of a socially disadvantaged class of our society.

16. Placing empowerment in perspective. this Court noted in State of Uttaranclzal v. Ba/want Singlt C/zaufaP that the first phase of public interest litigation concerned itself with primarily with the protection of the fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution of "the marginalized groups and ~ections of the society who because of extreme C poverty, illiteracy and ignorance cannot approach this Court or the High - Courts." We may add-the socially underprivileged groups. These are the people who have no real access to justice and in that sense are voiceless, and these are the people who need to be empowered and whose cause needs to be championed by those who advocate social D justice for the disadvantaged.

17. This recognition formed the basis of the decision of this Court in Dellzi Jal Board v. National Campaign for Dignity & Rights of Sewerage & Allied Workers' wherein providing succour to the deprived sections of society was recognized as a "constitutional duty" of this E Court. Referring to several judgments delivered by this Court, it was observed: "These judgments are a complete answer to the appellant's objection to the maintainability of the writ petition filed by Respondent 1. What the High Court has done by entertaining the writ petition and issuing directions for protection of the persons employed to _do work relating to sewage operations is part of its obligation to do justice to the disadvantaged and poor sections of the society. We may add that the superior courts will be failing in their constitutional duty if they decline to entertain petitions filed by genuine social groups, NGOs and social workers for espousing the cause of those who are deprived of the basic rights available to every human being, what to say of fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution. It is the duty of the judicial constituent of the State like its political and executive constituents to protect the

'<2010) 3 sec 402 (20!1)8SCC568

FOUNDATION v. UNlON OF INDIA !MADAN B. LOKUR, J.]

rights of every citizen and every.indiv"1dual and ensure that everyone is able to live with dignity."

18. There can be little or no doubt at all that widows in some parts of the country are socially deprived and to an extent ostracized. Perhaps this is the reason why many of them choose to come to Vrindavan and other ashrams where, unfortunately, they are.not treated with the dignity they deserve. This is evident from the article that caused this public interest litigation and the compilation of reports that this litigation has generated. It is to give voice these hapless widows that it became ncces5al)' for this Court to intervene as a part of its constitutional duty · and for reasons of social justice to issue appropriate directions~

19. We must express oilr gratitude IQ the petitioners, the Ministry of Women and Child Development and the National Commission for Women for the efforts put in and particularly to Ms. Renuka Kumar who has been of great assistance to this Court through her reports. '

20. With a view to follow-up on thef.greedAction Plan submitted by the learned Solicitor General, list thes~,matters on 9'" October, 2017.

Dim:.tions issued. /

•.