Lived Experiences and Social Relations of Power: Young Widows in Urban Trivandrum, Kerala

Death is an inescapable reality of life. It is always shocking and often traumatic when our beloved ones depart from our life. This paper aims to analyze the deprivations of young widows in urban Trivandrum, Kerala and their experiences as a result of the painful transition from wife to widowhood. The transformation that a conjugal bereavement brings to someone often leads him/her to a crossroad. Like in any patriarchal dominated society, married women in most households in Kerala are under the protection of their husband. He is usually the main breadwinner and provides the economic and social security for his wife and children. In the sudden absence of her spouse, besides encountering an unexpected shock, a widowed woman undergoes a radical life altering path. It leaves her with high instability in terms of economic, emotional, physical and social well-being which is an often neglected issue in Kerala despite the high social indicators for women. The aim of the thesis is to understand the lived experiences of a few young widows with children and the challenges they face in coping up and living a fulfilling a good human life. A qualitative study based on narratives with eighteen young widows was conducted using unstructured interviews. In an effort to understand the coping mechanisms and negotiations around the normative restrictions on widows and ways in which widows’ express their agency; concepts of gender, sexuality and agency have been used. The paper concludes by examining their lives based on the broader normative framework of Nussbaum’s capability approach with a view to shaping public policy.