Health of the Widows/Deserted Women in Nagai District

In general, widows and deserted women in Nagai district have average health. The younger women are still more energetic while the older women are emaciated due to long years of hard work and battering against the oppression of the society culturally, which affect them psychologically and economically as well. 

Before the death of their husbands, the widows have not been exposed to hard work or pretty much any work that was out of the house. During the hard moments of their husband’s ill health, they started their difficult trials and have borne the loss of all the little wealth they had. Following the death of their husband, they are forced to work and earn their livelihood, for caring for their children. Let down by their parental relations as well as the in-laws, the grim situation of facing life with nothing but their own hands and feet. Not only are the widows now marginalized, but completely left alone. It is pure determination for a happier family that keeps these widows going.

Deserted women on the other hand are  emaciated even in the beginning of the separation. Not only does the society treat them with disrespect, but they have bitter memories of the ill-treatment by their husbands. Their only hope and consolation is her child/children where they draw positive energy from their innocent smiles and dependence on them for their affection. Their strength is sustained in a bitter fight against all odds. 

Frequent health problems include:

• Malnutrition sets in at an earlier age than usual
• Eye trouble begin usually in their mid-thirties and they often neglect attention to it
• Most of them have cataracts and cannot afford to undergo an operation
• Early in their forties and fifties the women have weak bones due to osteo porosis and cannot afford treatment
• Many of them get kidney failure because they drink unsafe water. Once problems regarding the kidneys arise most of them gradually die because they cannot afford dialysis.
• Jaundice is a frequented ailment that even affect their children.
• Lung diseases affect them more easily.
• Tuberculosis is often not diagnosed at early stages and later causes death.