Bhagwati received her firs widow pension after 20 years.
Bhagwati Pankra was born in the village of Khurapani in 1979. At the age of 16, Bhagwati was married to Jagatram of Village, Post Kokiakhar. After the death of Bhagwati’s husband, the responsibility of taking care of the family increased and she went to work for others and took care of the family.
Bhagwati has 1.250 hectares of land. After the death of her husband, Bhagwati used to go to the Gram Sabha and started applying for the benefits of the government scheme. Bhagwati Paikra had to face many problems. The economic problem came in front of her. She wanted to send her sons to school but due to financial constraints, she was unable to send her son to school. Whenever she was in the Gram Sabha, she applied for her widow pension, but she did not get any hearing and many years passed when her son(lakhan) turned 21 and started working as a labourer to run his house. And the widow kept applying several times in the gram sabha for a pension and it has been many years and she did not get the widow pension.
By the way, there used to be a discussion in the locality that Lakhan’s mother is not getting any benefit from the widow pension scheme. One day Lakhan’s mother met Ekta Mahila Manch activist ManKunwar Ji and she narrated her tragedy till the year 2021. They Met the sarpanch in connection with the work and then discussed with the sarpanch that Bhagwati ji does not get a widow pension in any way and her name is not even on the list. Mother’s widow pension application form was filled and also submitted in Gram Sabha on 20th September, many years passed after that Lakhan’s mother Bhagwati Paikra was listed in Pension Yojana in the year 2022 through Ekta Mahila Manch In 2022. She received her first instalment on 10.12.2022.
Now, she has started attending Ekta Manch meetings and continues to find solutions to her problems and solve problems in a non-violent way.