To bring in a change in the overall outlook to widows in the community, the Family Commission of Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) will start a new matrimonial website where widows have a separate option to register.
KCBC Family Commission Secretary, Father Paul Madassery explained that even today, the society prescribes dress code for widows and forces them to behave in a certain manner in social gatherings. "They are humans and in no way they should be discriminated in society."
Father Madassery believes the new website will give young Christian widows, especially those under 40 years, a hope for a new beginning.
"We will help the young widows to register in the online matrimonial site and set up a new life for them. People today prefer to marry women widowed rather than divorced. The new matrimonial site will be fully operational in the coming days," the Christian leader said.
The commission has decided to count the number of widows in all Catholic churches including the churches in Syro Malankara, Latin and Syro Malabar.
The commission believes that there will be over one lakh widows in the Catholic Churches. "As we are collecting the data on a state level basis for the first time, it will take over a year for us to get the whole details. We will coordinate each diocese to collect the list of widows from the parishes," Father Madassery said.
In mid November, a "widow forum" to coordinate and impart training to the widows was formed at a meeting held in Kochi.
"A widow will be able to understand the emotions of another widow, therefore we will give training to the widows who will be able to relate to the problems and issues of others. There are widows from low-income groups, who are unaware of the benefits they can get from the government, we want to educate them so that they can reap its benefits," Father Madassery added.
The forum will train selected widows in teams.
