Their men washed away by Uttarakhand flash floods, 57 women now in Sulabh's care

Moved by the the pitiable condition of women in the Deoli-Bramhagram villages of Uttarakhand, where all the men have perished in the flash floods of mid-June, Sulabh International has decided to adopt the villages.

Talking to IANS, an official spokesman of the non-government organisation (NGO) said Sulabh International founder Bindeshwar Pathak was moved by media reports that all 57 women in these villages have lost their husbands, who earned their livelihood by ferrying pilgrims on the Kedaranth route on their mules.

After the flash floods caused by the heavy and intense rains June 16, these men are believed to all be dead.

Madan Jha, spokesman for Sulabh, said: "We have decided to aid the rehabilitation of the women, so they can get the threads of life back together. For the next five years, each of the women will get Rs.2,000 per month."

Jha said such a project of aiding widows has already been started in Vrindavan and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, after the Supreme Court issued directions for the upkeep and maintenance of widows in the two cities.

The two Uttarakhand villages adopted by Sulabh are located about seven km from Guptkashi. Officials say the villages now bear a deserted look; only the women and children remain.

All the men folk were engaged in the 14-km trek between Gaurikund, Rambada and Kedarnath on the night the flashfloods ravaged the area. For six months each year, during the Char Dham Yatra period, the men worked their mules to ferry pilgrims up and down the mountainous treks.

Witnesses say that on that fateful day last month, the mule drivers and their sure-footed animals were washed away into the river and the valley below by the heavy downpour and landslides. Two weeks after the incident, the chances of any of them returning alive, officials say, are bleak.

"Whatever is possible to mitigate the sufferings of these hapless women, Sulabh will try its best. We have always helped people in distress, and in this instance of the Himalayan tsunami, our efforts will match the magnitude of the devastation," Bindeshwar Pathak said.

The NGO recently set up the "Sulabh Hope Foundation" to serve widows in India.