 bill no xlv of 2006 the widows (protection and maintenance) bill, 2006 a billto provide for the measures to be undertaken by the state for the protection and maintenance of  neglected, abandoned and destitute widows by establishing a welfare board for such widows and for matters connected therewith and incidental theretobe it enacted by parliament in the fifty-seventh year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the widows (protection and maintenance) act, 2006(2) it extends to the whole of indiashort title, extent and commencement(3) it shall come into force with immediate effectdefinitions2 in this act, unless the context otherwise requires,—(a) "abandoned widow" means a widow who has been deserted or thrown out of the household by her relatives to fend for  herself and who has no means to support her and her dependent children, if any;(b) "appropriate government" means in the case of a state the government of that state and in other cases the central government;(c) "board" means the national widows welfare board established under section 3;(d) "destitute widow" means a widow stricken with infirmity due to old age, physical disability, chronic ailment, mental imbalance or who is too poor having no source of income with or without dependent minor children;(e) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this act; (f) "widow" means a woman whose husband has expired after her legal marriage3 (1) the central government shall, by notification in the official gazette, establish a board to be called the national widows welfare board for the purposes of this act(2) the board shall be a body corporate by the name aforesaid having perpetual succession and a common seal with power to acquire, hold and dispose of property, both movable and immovable and to contract and shall by the said name sue and be sued(3) the head office of the board shall be situated at such place as may be decided by the central government and the board may establish its branches in the states and union territories in such manner as may be prescribed(4) the board shall consist of, —(a) a chairperson ex-officio who shall be the minister in charge of the union ministry of social justice and empowerment;(b) a vice-chairperson preferably a widow to be appointed by the central government;(c) three members of parliament of whom two shall be from lok sabha and one from the rajya sabha to be nominated by the respective presiding officers of each house;(d) two members representing the department of women and child development of the union ministry of human resource development to be appointed by the central government;(e) not more than four members to be appointed by the central government in consultation with the governments of states, by rotation in alphabetical order, to represent the governments of the states; and(f) three members to be appointed by the central government from amongst the non government organizations working for the welfare of widows(5) the board shall follow such procedure in discharge of its agenda and hold meetings in such manner as may be prescribed(6) the board shall have a secretariat with such number of officers and employees with such terms and conditions of service, as may be necessary for the efficient functioning of the board as may be prescribedwelfare fund4 the board shall have a welfare fund for the widows known as the widowswelfare fund to which shall be credited all receipts from the central government, state governments other institutions, organizations, body corporate of public or private sector, and individual for the welfare and maintenance of the needy and destitute widowsfunctions of the board5 (1) the board shall promote and provide, by such measures as it thinks fit for theprotection, maintenance and welfare of neglected,  abandoned and destitute widows with or without dependent children(2) without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of sub-section (1) the board shall, —(a) maintain district wise register of widows with such particulars and in such manner as may be prescribed;(b) collect and get verified the antecedents of every widow covered under this act to assess her need for assistance in such manner as may be prescribed(c) perform such other functions as may be assigned to it from time to time6 the board shall provide to the needy and destitute widows, on an application prescribed for the purpose the following facilities, namely:—facilities to be provided to the widows(a) subsistence allowance of rupees two thousand per month in case the widow is infirm and destitute or is having one or more dependent children or rupees one thousand per month in case she has no dependent child;(b) residential accommodation free of cost wherever necessary; (c) free education including technical education to the dependent children of the widows;(d) gainful employment; (e) vocational training wherever required; (f) such other facilities as may be necessary and as may be prescribed:provided that if a widow covered under this act gets gainful employment or remarries, the facilities provided to her under this act shall stand withdrawn from the date such widow gets employment or remarries, as the case may be:provided further that a widow residing with her in-laws or parents according to custom or due to other circumstances shall not be denied the facilities under this act on this groundmiscellaneous provisions7 notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force or in any custom, a widow,—(i) shall not be evicted or thrown out of the house of the in-laws or parents, as the case may be, where such widow was residing at the time of death of her husband;(ii) shall be entitled to inherit the property or the share of her late husband in case of joint ownership of the property from her in-laws; and(iii) shall be entitled for maintenance from the heir or in-laws who abandon a widow at religious place like mathura, vrindavan, etc for bhajan chanting for subsistence8 the central government shall, after due appropriation made by parliament in this behalf by law, provide adequate requisite funds for carrying out the purposes of this actcentral government to provide requisite funds act to have overriding effect9 the provisions of this act and rules made thereunder shall have effect notwithstanding anything inconsistent therewith contained in any other law for the time being in force, but save as aforesaid the provisions of this act shall be in addition to and not in derogation of any other law for the time being applicable to the widowspower to make rules10 the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, make rules for carrying out the purposes of this act statement of objects and reasonsin our country there are millions of unfortunate women who lose their husbands, many a time untimely, and become widows and their number is nearly three per cent of our population very large number of widows particularly from the lower and middle income groups of our society become destitute after the death of their husbands more than fifty per cent of these widows are old without any means to support themselves their position becomes more miserable if they have dependent children to support and bring up they work as housemaids and take up other jobs for survival it is very common in our society that when a widow does not have a source of livelihood or permanent source of income they are driven out of their in-laws homes or even from their parental homes sometimes condition of such widows becomes so miserable due to poverty and other compelling reasons that they are exploited to the extent possible and their life is made disgraceful many old widows suffering from infirmity due to old age, disability or ailment can be seen begging in the streets and public places many young widows are not only sexually exploited by their known ones but also forced into prostitution due to superstition at many places, they are treated as bad omen and are kept away from auspicious functions of the householdsours is a welfare state, therefore, the state is duty bound to initiate welfare measures and protect and provide maintenance to the hapless widows so that they too live honourably in the society for this purpose and autonomous welfare borad should be established to exclusively look after the welfare of needy widowshence this billsushma swaraj financial memorandumclause 3 of the bill provides for the establishment of the national widows welfare board clause 4 provides for the welfare fund clause 6 provides for facilities to widows clause 8 provides that central government shall provide adequate requisite funds for carrying out the purposes of the bill the bill, if enacted, will involve expenditure from the consolidated fund of india it is estimated that a sum of rupees one thousand crore may involve as recurring expenditure per annuma non-recurring expenditure of rupees two hundred crore may also involve memorandum regarding delegated legislationclause 10 of the bill gives power to the central government to make rules for carrying out the purposes of the bill the rules will relate to matters of details onlythe delegation of legislative power is of normal character———— a billto provide for the measures to be undertaken by the state for the protection and maintenanceof neglected, abandoned and destitute widows by establishing a welfare boardfor such widows and for matters connected therewith and incidental thereto(shrimati sushma swaraj, mp)mgipmrnd—1772rs(s-4)—28-07-2006