Haldi Kumkum With A Difference Celebrated in Pune 

The CSR arm of JM Financial Group, organised a Haldi-Kumkum ceremony for the Covid-widowed mothers, and their children, on January 14, 2024, on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, at Pune. 

The initiative is a spin-off of JM Financial Shiksha Samarthan, a nationwide CSR project launched by JMFF to offer financial aid for school education (up to grade 12) to children who have lost one/both parents to Covid. Of the invited 166 beneficiary mothers in and around Pune region, 64 participated in the Haldi-Kumkum ceremony.

The idea of organizing this ceremony was born last year, when on the occasion of Makar Sankranti, the mothers stayed silent in response to festive wishes on a virtual communication platform. When asked, one of them shared that a festival that once signified happiness, prosperity, and above all, the pride in being a married woman, is now an occasion for others in society to look at them differently. Without their husbands, these women face socio-cultural isolation, visible when they are no longer invited to participate in Haldi-Kumkum, or are expected to dress differently, compared to married women. 

Accompanied by their mothers, 89 children also frolicked around, with the games, music and dance organized by the Foundation. The mothers also danced with abandon, something that is now a privilege for them.