India, Oct. 16 -- Continuing to break age-old traditions, hundreds of mothers who living in ashrams after death of their husbands once again joined the Diwali celebrations organized specially for them at the historic Gopinath Temple in Vrindavan on Wednesday evening. The programme was organised by Sulabh International with an aim to bring widowed mothers into the mainstream of the society. For generations, such mothers in India were seen as "inauspicious" and were traditionally excluded from participating in festivals and other joyous occasions.

Thousands of mothers mostly from West Bengal, live in Vrindavan for decades and they were not allowed to take part in rituals, till social organisation Sulabh extended them a helping hand added N...