New Delhi: In a bid to identify women widowed by the brutal second wave of the pandemic this year so that government schemes for compensation can reach them, the Delhi Commission for Women has said on Monday that they have so far identified 721 such women, who lost their husbands to the virus since the pandemic began and even conducted a survey among them.
Significantly, the survey shows that of the 791 women, 721 are housewives, while the rest work as domestic workers, labourers, small business owners and private and government employees. Close to 28.5 per cent of these women have no source of income and almost 60 per cent of them have a monthly income of Rs 15,000 or less.
According to the survey, 774 (97.85 per cent out of 791 women) have at least one child while 360 women have three to five children. It found that 30 women have over five children.
From the list of identified 791 women, 734, which accounts for 92.79 per cent, are in the age bracket of 18-60 years, while the rest are senior citizens. Nearly 191 women fall in the age group of 18-35, the survey found.
The DCW has now submitted a report to the Delhi government to ensure their rehabilitation access to government schemes.
The social survey was conducted on the grassroots level by the DCW through its Mahila Panchayat network. The figure is the cumulative number of women who lost their husbands to the virus since the start of the pandemic last year.
The Delhi government has rolled out the "Mukhyamantri Covid-19 Pariwar Aarthik Sahayata Yojana" under which an ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 will be provided to those who have lost a family member to coronavirus.
The Commission is still identifying other women who were widowed during Covid pandemic and will submit additional lists to the government, it added.
It was also found that 597 women had not been vaccinated till the date of survey.
"The Commission strongly believes that it is very important to get these women vaccinated on priority. The Commission has recommended the government to issue an order to the district magistrates to get these women vaccinated," the DCW said.
DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said, "We are sending a detailed social survey report to the government so that the benefits of the scheme can be passed on to these women."