Donate floral offerings to shelter homes: SC

Donate floral offerings to shelter homes: SC

What has happened?

The Supreme Court has urged temple towns across the country to follow in the footsteps of the Uttar Pradesh Women Welfare department’s initiative to donate “huge” floral offerings received at temples to destitute women and widows’ shelter homes

Widows can make eco-friendly products

The inmates of these shelters use the flowers to make eco-friendly products like sugandh essence, sugandhjal, agarbatti, etc, with the technical support of Floral and Fragrance Development Centre, Kannauj, under the Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Ministry

Source of Rehabilitation

Earlier dumped as garbage, the flowers are now a major source of rehabilitation, dignity and earning for the Vrindavan widows, the Supreme Court acknowledged the novel initiative

Directive sought

• To direct the temples and local administrative authorities of Vrindavan and Mathura to deposit floral offerings only to the premises of widow and destitute shelter homes run by Uttar Pradesh MahilaKalyan Nigam in Vrindavan and not to dump these offerings at any other place or send them elsewhere
• The court directed the Nagar Nigam Mathura to ensure that the flower offerings are collected and deposited with shelter home premises of the Uttar Pradesh MahilaKalyan Nigam

Possibilities of implementation at other places

Finally, the court asked the National Commission for Women to examine if similar initiatives can be taken in other temple towns like Puri, Varanasi, etc.