Lord Loomba CBE, who secured a debate at the House of Lords on 22nd February 2018, raised the issue in the light of the recent Oxfam scandal, asking the minister what priority the government will give to women and girls, including widows while developing and implementing projects and initiatives by the Department for International Development (DfID).
“This has been a very difficult week for gender equality and women’s rights, especially as the media have brought out evidence of historical abuses that have been swept under the carpet for many years." Noting that the International Development Secretary, Penny Morduant, has stated that "no charity is too big, or its work too complex, for DfID to withdraw its support," Lord Loomba said "showing that we mean business may be the only way to ensure that people in power do not abuse the powerless," that women and girls are not abused. "The vulnerability of women and girls comes in many shapes and forms but none are more vulnerable than widows, who suffer in silence as abuse after abuse is meted out to them."
Revealing figures from the World Widows Report; an intensive, country-by-country research report commissioned and published by the Loomba Foundation, he touched a chord with the minister when he cited that there are 259 million widows and 585 million of their children across the world who suffer in silence, more than 100 million live in poverty, of whom 38 million live in extreme poverty and struggle to survive every single day.
"Many of these widows, experience targeted murder, rape, prosecution, forced marriage, property theft, eviction, social isolation and physical, psychological and sexual abuse... The children of widows’ experience forced child marriage, illiteracy and loss of schooling, forced labour, human trafficking, homelessness and rape."
Quoting from a letter in 2016 by the then Secretary General, Bank-ki Moon on the negative affect that ill-treatment of widows will have on achieving the aims of the sustainable development goals, he said: “the report demonstrates that four of the first five United Nations sustainable development goals are very unlikely to be achieved unless more is done to help widows and their children, making the focusing on their issues even more of a priority."
As the recent revelations about alleged cover-ups in Haiti show, Lord Loomba underlined that "much needs to be done to strengthen the work DfID is doing” and first and foremost we need to ensure that “its work and money are getting to those who need them the most, and that we are on target to achieve the SDGs by 2030."
He commended DFID for the difficult work that it does, sometimes in the hardest of circumstances, as he ended his speech by asking the Minister that " DfID should consider supporting grass-roots women’s rights organisations and NGOs working on the ground, such as the Rotary India Literacy Mission, which, alongside the Loomba Foundation, is helping a pan-Indian initiative to provide vocational skills training to 30,000 widows in India—1,000 in each state in the country."
On 15 February 2018, the Loomba Foundation completed an empowerment project for more than 5,000 widows in the holy city of Varanasi, India that was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi two years ago. "This type of work is key to ensure that women, girls and widows are not left behind and, alongside strong legislative reforms which are enacted—and indeed, acted upon—will ensure a better future for them."
The Minister of State Lord Bates commented that it has been a wide-ranging debate which includes participation from Lord Bishop of St Albans, the Crossbenchers and all political parties including the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats. Lord Bates concluded by saying “I repeat our gratitude to the noble Lord, Lord Loomba, for securing this debate and thank noble Lords for their commitments. We shall ensure that this important work continues in the future.”
