By IANS
Patna : It was a cultural shock for many when a group of Hindu women in Bihar’s Nawada district broke an age-old custom by performing the last rites of an old man.
Women members of a family in Mirzapur mohalla decided to perform the last rites of their old father Ulhas Mahto, who died two days ago. They took out the funeral procession and lit the pyre, amid chanting of Vedic hymns Monday.
In India, it is always the men who carry the dead in funeral procession to the cremation or burial ground and perform the last rites. Hindu women are forbidden to perform last rites and are widely seen as a discrimination against women.
“We decided that the time has now come to initiate a new beginning by handing over the custom of performing last rites to women of the family,” Mahto’s elder son said. The three sons and grandsons helped the women in the task.
“By allowing our wives, sisters and daughters to perform the last rites of our grand old man, we have set an example before the society to get rid of an age old practice,” said another son.
The male members of the family are upbeat that they have empowered the women to tread the male bastion.
Early this year, a Hindu woman, Geetu Avinash in her 50s, performed the ‘shradh ceremony’ (ritual performed after a death) of her husband Avinash Kumar at Ara, about 60 km from here.
Kumar died of cancer July 10 in a Kolkata hospital. Geetu lit his pyre in Kolkata in the presence of her brothers-in-law, their sons and other relatives.