Lord Loomba, discussed about gender equality, pay gaps, importance of education for women and government policy for widows and spinsters, at a debate to mark the International Women's Day.
Speaking at the debate, he said,"equality for women and girls, .... is [a] very important issue that does not lessen with time".
"[P]rogress is disappointingly slow," he observed; "[w]omen do not have equality or parity with their male colleagues, relatives, friends and acquaintances", he stated.
Of the many ways to address gender equality, Lord Loomba emphasised the importance of education. "One of the key ways to improve gender equality," he advised, "is by ensuring that women and girls have the right skills, education, [and] training". Another important factor, he advocated, is women's "access to capital to allow them to realise their potential, start up businesses, create successful companies and add to the national and global economy". Something many women would readily agree with.
Commentating on statistics that show "undeniable" pay gaps "for women across the globe," Lord Loomba was keen to shine a light on the many disadvantaged women and girls worldwide that, "suffer through discrimination, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, trafficking, prostitution and so on". Drawing attention to the work of the Loomba Foundation to help widows worldwide, Lord Loomba said, "[u]nfortunately, the fate of a woman is even worse as and when she loses her husband". Noting that the number of widows are rising, and usually "due to poverty, disease and conflict", "[m]any of them," he declared, "are living below the poverty line". Uneducated and without work, they are often, "living a life of modern slavery". This issue is something he believed strongly needed addressing urgently by governments and stakeholders.
Demonstrating the importance of empowering widows through training schemes, Lord Loomba described how the foundation provides tuition for widows to "establish economic stability for themselves and their family". Outlining the great work of the foundation, he explained, "[t]he foundation also provides funding for the education of the children of widows, so they can ensure that their family misfortunes will not continue to the next generation by breaking the shackles of poverty".
Lord Loomba, noting the change that good education for widows can bring and that the United Nations has "called for action to mobilise economic justice and rights for all, gender equality and feminist leadership," he stated rhetorically, "[i]magine a world with more females at the helm, in business and in government—it is something we should all strive to facilitate". Emphasising that the plight of widows is considered desperate enough for the UN to endorse International Widows Day, on the 23rd June each year, Lord Loomba asked the Minister "whether the Government have any plans to help unfortunate widows and unmarried girls in developing countries, through education and skills training". "It would not only make them self-reliant," but, he declared that it would crucially, "change the mindset of people around them, letting them live a decent and dignified life".
