A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man in that situation. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed as widowhood. This term "widowhood" can be used for either sex. In common usage both the sexes are termed as widowed. The treatment of widows around the world varies, but unequal benefits and treatment generally received by widows compared to those received by widowers globally has an issue of concern for social scientists. Widowhood is both a crisis and a problem. In the suddenness and in the sea change that it wrought in the life of a woman, it is a crisis. The number of ‘Widowed’ persons, mostly females, is more than 44 million in the country according to the 2001 census. The purpose of the present paper is to showcase the life of the widows in comparison to its counter parts, the widowers in India. It also focuses on the unequal treatment of the widows on the basis of gender in the present society. The following paper is based on secondary data and not on any theoretical propositions.
