Public Function for Vidarbha Widows

German women aid given to Vidarbha farm widows :

Pandharkawada (India), March 17:

Today in very largely attended public function (see photo)to give German women aid to vidarbha farm widows held in small town pandharkawada in yavatmal district of vidarbha(India) in which most venerable widows who are facing starvation have given the relief aid .the function was orgnised by pandharkawada civic body president anil tiwari in local agrasen bhavan was attended by all social and political workers of all parties.
Kumar Roy and Shibani Bhattacharya Indian counter part of Indienhilfe e.V., a voluntary organisation based in Herrsching, have disbursed the amount.
Courageous and spirited stories told by widows, publicly, to keep the life alive was main attraction of the function.

This time, the helping hand has come from across the oceans, from Germany, for the distressed widows of farmers in Vidarbha, the region of Maharashtra in the grip of a severe agrarian crisis.

The readers of a Munich-based daily sent in financial contributions for helping women after reading about their plight in a series of stories carried by the newspaper.

The amount representing the total collection is to be handed over to the women at a brief function to be held in Pandharkawda in this district on Saturday.

Karin Steinberger, a correspondent of the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a leading German newspaper, toured Vidarbha in December 2006 for a closer look at the agrarian crisis and the plight of the widows of debt-ridden farmers, who committed suicide.

Moved by Ms. Steinberger's articles, several readers remitted money to the newspaper's office, asking it to be sent to the widows. The total collection was the equivalent of Rs1. 5 lakhs.

However, the money could not be sent to India directly because of legal restrictions on remittance of foreign exchange, until Indienhilfe e.V., a voluntary organisation based in Herrsching, stepped in.

Kishor Tiwari, local farm activist of Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti was the chief guest of the this function and urged all farm widows to change the agrarian crisis in to prosperity whole world is with, we will appeal the all international community to stand along with you in this days of distress. No widows have become sex worker till date and it will not happen in future too.
Vidarbha farm widows are the highly respected like war widows in this maharashtra ,we condemn the media campaign to malign the image of vidarbha farm widows as turning be sex workers, Kishor Tiwari informed gathering with grate pain.

However some sections of Indian media are bent on attracting sensational headlines, doing investigative journalism, looking for spicy headlines, without any compassion.
This section of media is choosing to put farm widows in the dock rather than the agriculture policy makers.