Lord Loomba will make a number of announcements to the media about his plans for widows and will also seek the support of the Government of India.

Lord Loomba will make a number of 

announcements to the media about his plans for 

widows and will also seek the support of the 

Government of India. 

The lot of a widow is shocking in many parts of the world, the sorrow of losing her husband compounded by cruelty and injustice. Tradition variously dictates that she is unable to work or remarry; subjected to degrading ‘cleansing’ rituals; ejected from her home; her wealth taken by the deceased husband’s relatives; banned from wearing jewellery or coloured clothing; and left without any means of supporting herself or her children.

Much is made, rightly, of gender inequality – the lack of opportunity and education faced by millions of girls and the routine abuse and discrimination faced by women – but widows truly are the bottom of the pile – invisible, unheard, the poorest of the poor. The major initiatives aimed at relieving poverty – the Millennium Development Goals, the IMF Poverty Reduction Programme, Make Poverty History, the G20 – all are silent on the subject of widows.

Lord Raj Loomba CBE (Member of the British Parliament (Upper House) set up Loomba Foundation in 1997 to focus initially on relieving the desperate plight of poor widows and their children in India – and this remains a very important objective. Founder Raj Loomba soon came to realise however that this problem is by no means confined to India alone. In 2005, Loomba Foundation president Cherie Blair launched International Widows Day at the House of Lords in London and over the next five years, the Foundation campaigned for international recognition of this day as a focus for sustained, effective, global action to bring about a radical and lasting transformation in the plight of widows.

Finally on 22 December 2010, the United Nations recognised June 23 as International Widows Day, the UN’s annual global day of action to address the poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents in many countries.

Last year, on International Widows Day, 23rd June 2012, The Loomba Foundation launched an initiative to empower 10,000 impoverished widows in India by providing them each with sewing machines. They will also receive training course to learn how to make garments. The success of this effort will show how far widows have travelled—from being objects of revulsion and exile to becoming participants in, and agents of, sustainable development. The Foundation also supports the education of 3,500 children of widows all across India.

Lord Raj Loomba has further plans this year to improve the lot of widows in India and expand the reach of education of their children. He will be addressing a select gathering of media just for an hour between 5 PM and 6 PM at Hotel Trident, BKC, Mumbai on Wednesday 20th March, 2013. Lord Loomba will make a number of announcements to the media about his plans for widows and will also seek the support of the Government of India.