Vidya is one of thousands of widows left behind by distressed farmers in Maharashtra's Marathwada and Vidarbha regions who were driven to suicide by the extreme agrarian crisis.

Key Highlights Broken by years of crop failure and mounting debt, Vidya's husband Sahadev doused their tiny hut in kerosene and set it ablaze.

But Vidya was not ready to give up and she jumped out of the hut with her children.

Today, she has paid off all the loans, and both her children are doing well in school.

KALAMB (OSMANABAD): Ten years ago, Vidya More's life went up in flames. Broken by years of crop failure and mounting debt, her husband Sahadev doused their tiny hut in kerosene and set it ablaze. But Vidya was not ready to give up. She threw her children out of the hut and jumped out. She wanted to live, and wanted her children to have a shot at life. She survived with injuries, and started rebuilding her life from the ashes.

Today, she has scripted a remarkable turnaround. She has paid off all the loans, and both her children - Ganesh and Vaishnavi - are doing well in school. Ganesh is in Class XI and wants to join the army. Vaishnavi, a Class IX student, is the topper of her class.

Vidya is one of thousands of widows left behind by distressed farmers in Maharashtra's Marathwada and Vidarbha regions who were driven to suicide by the extreme agrarian crisis. In the three years between 2014 and 2016, nearly 3,880 farmers ended their lives here.

The widows - illiterate, inexperienced and disadvantaged - have shown more resilience. "Suicide is not the answer to anything. I had tried to convince my husband that we must work hard to repay the loans. But he chose death. I didn't want my kids to be burned alive. What is their fault? Why should they be punished?" says Vidya.

Life is not easy for a farmer's widow. "I had to start from scratch. There was no support from my family. My deceased husband had mortgaged our two acres for Rs 30,000. Those were difficult days. I started working as a farm worker... we had to survive, we had to eat. I worked day and night and learned all farming skills on my own. I also learned sewing, and worked as a seamstress to add to the earnings from the farm."

In neighbouring Kherda village, Dhondabai Nimbule fought to prove her family wrong. After husband Baburao's suicide in 1999, her in-laws threw her out of the house. With her infant daughter, Dhondabai returned to her parents' village. Everyone thought she, too, would end her life. "But I was determined to live for my daughter," she says. "I started working as an anganwadi helper. Now, I have a goat and do some sewing work. My daughter is studying science in college. She will have a better life than I ever did," she says.

Manisha Jadhav, one of Dhondabai's neighbours, toils in a half-acre field and works in the anganwadi as well. She too was thrown out of the house by her in-laws after her husband Chandrasen hanged himself. With two young daughters, Manisha decided to set an example. "I taught them how to live, not how to die," she says.

Living has its price. Many in Vidya's village, especially the men, were not pleased at her newfound independence. Once, the water supply to her field was cut off.

"Everyone wants to show sympathy to a widow. But when a widow wants to do something on her own, society doesn't like it," says Vidya. And the taunts - "she is behaving like a man" - have not stopped. "I am behaving like a mother. What is wrong in working hard for your children?" asks Vidya.

To her kids, she is a hero. "She is mother, father and everything to us. I am going to study hard and become a police officer," says daughter Vaishnavi.

Activist Sunanda Kharate, who works with Paryay Organisation in Osmanabad, says these widows are turning their lives around. Paryay conducted a survey of widows and abandoned women - in the 20-35 years age group - in Kalamb and Washi talukas and found that most of them have repaid their husbands' loans and are ensuring an education for their children. "Nobody wants to acknowledge the fact that the widows have done what the men were unable to," says Kharate.

