Mumbai

Social activist Pramod Zinjade has urged society to ensure the inclusion of widowed women in traditional Makar Sankranti celebrations, stating that their exclusion from religious and social rituals stems from deeply entrenched discrimination.

Zinjade, who heads the Mahatma Phule Samaj Seva Mandal and has been actively working against regressive social practices, said treating widows as inauspicious and barring them from festivals amounts to grave social injustice.

He emphasised that true religious values demand dignity and respect for widowed women, including their full participation in rituals such as lighting lamps in temples or homes, offering prayers, and presenting food to deities.

Welcoming villages that have already begun including widows in festive observances, Zinjade called for wider acceptance of such inclusive practices.

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He also appealed to educated and confident widowed women to take the initiative by organising traditional haldi-kumkum and tilgul programmes for other widows in their villages during Makar Sankranti.