‘ Spell out schemes for destitute women, widows’

The Supreme Court has directed all the state governments and union territories’ administrations to spell out the welfare schemes in force for the rehabilitation of destitute women and widows.

A bench of justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta while dealing with the issue of Vrindavan widows, in the petition filed by the Environment and Consumer Protection Foundation, asked the states to supply the details of such schemes through e- mail to the ministry of women and child development and to the national commission for women. The court then asked the national commission for women to compile all the schemes so that it could frame a model scheme for implementation.

Earlier, it was brought to the attention of the court that huge floral offerings are made to the temples in Vrindavan and these offerings were either being dumped in river Yamuna or dumped elsewhere as garbage.

Further, it was submitted that under the initiative of the department of women welfare in Uttar Pradesh, the floral offerings are now being used for making eco- friendly products like Sugandh essence, Sugandh jal, gulal, dhoop batti, agarbatti, etc. with the technical support of Floral and Fragrance Development Centre in Kannauj under the micro, small and medium enterprises ministry.

Taking note of this submission, the bench asked the municipal corporation of Mathura to ensure that the flower offerings are collected and deposited with aforesaid shelter home premises of the Uttar Pradesh Mahila Kalyan Nigam and also to ensure that they are not dumped elsewhere.