Child Widows

This term refers to girls who had been
married as children and whose husbands (whether older men or boys their
own age) died before the girls reached
puberty and the marriage had been consummated. Although the lives of such
child widows varied according to the
status of their families, their lives were
often quite grim, given the traditional
prohibitions on widow remarriage and
the strict behavioral codes mandated for
widows. Reformers in the nineteenth
century, such as Ram Mohan Roy,
championed the drive to promote
societal acceptance of second marriages
for child widows. Due to the sharp
decline in the frequency of child marriages, child widows are extremely
uncommon in modern times. See also
marriage prohibitions.