By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday set up a seven-member committee to go into the socio-economic condition of widows living in the holy city of Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh.
An apex court bench of Justice D.K. Jain and Justice Anil R. Dave ordered the setting up of the committee on the suggestion of the National legal Service Authority (NALSA) while hearing a public interest litigation.
The court said that the committee would have representatives of the National Commission for Women, secretaries of departments of women and child development and social welfare in Uttar Pradesh, chairman of district legal services authority, district collector, district medical officer and senior superintendent of police of Mathura district.
The court gave the committee eight weeks to collect data on the widows who have been abandoned in the holy city.
The panel would also find out if these widows own any property in their name or if any property was registered in the name of their late husbands.
The committee was told to collect data on all widows, including those who had access to shelter and those who wandered on streets.
The NALSA in its suggestion sought direction to the state government to build temporary shelters to which the seven-member committee could send the homeless widows during the enumeration process.