Page:Sketches of some distinguished Indian women.djvu/18

6 BOMB DISTINGUISHED INDIAN WOMEN. becoming an outcast; she may not leave the home of her husband's people, she may not eat with them, she must have her hair cut off and wear wretched clothes, and she may only be employed in the lowest and most menial tasks; and when it is remembered that there were in India in 1881 no less than 669,100 widows under the age of nineteen, all of them doomed by the cruel and senseless customs of their country to lifelong seclusion and misery, the extent of the evil becomes appalling.

To meet it, many noble efforts are being made in various parts of India by the more enlightened of the natives themselves. The nobles of Rajputana have formed themselves into a league to put a stop to child marriages, and in other places strenuous efforts are being made to induce men of good character and position to come forward and marry child widows, and to encourage their remarriage by every possible means.

Only quite lately a movement was made by the barbers in Bombay, who refused any longer to shave the heads of widows, because, as they said, they believed it was contrary to the real teaching of their religion.

Other efforts are being made to give them instruction, so that they may have some occupation to beguile their weary hours of seclusion, or even that they may be able to earn their own living, and thus