The plight of widows was a neglected and invisible cause when The Loomba Foundation began its work in 1997. 13 years later it won unanimous endorsement from the UN General Assembly with, along the way, the active support of dozens of heads of government and thousands of leading figures from business, arts, culture and society all over the world. That sounds – and maybe it is – impressive, but what we have to remember is that those eye-catching milestones have only scratched the surface of the problem. Our sights are set on its eradication.
When I established The Loomba Foundation with my wife in 1997 – well before the Beijing Conference – we began by addressing the desperate plight of widows in India. Today, our focus has widened to encompass the whole world. The suffering of widows directly affects close to a billion people. It perpetuates numerous other injustices faced by women and girls of all ages, by children and by the poor generally, in many parts of the world. The plight of widows is a scar on the face of humanity. Its eradication would remove one of the biggest and most obstinate barriers to achieving four of the top five Sustainable Development Goals, thus not only bringing relief to the undeserved suffering of millions, but improving the prospects for stability and peace.
When we established The Loomba Foundation we set ourselves a target that within ten years we would educate 100 children of poor widows in each of India’s 29 states, a target we achieved in eight years. In that time we learned that the plight of widows is by no means confined to India and so we began to look at and raise awareness about the global plight of widows.
As a charity we have – with our partners and supporters – succeeded in transforming the lives of tens of thousands of widows and their children through our programmes in India and Africa, but we know the problem affects millions.
The situation is improving in some places, but far too slowly. In urban settings, where widows are oftent better educated and able to find employment, some progress can be seen (though by no means everywhere!) – in rural areas, widows have a huge challenge. They are uneducated, they cannot find a job, they are dependent on family members who abuse them physically, psychologically and sexually. Sadly they do not know who to turn to. Therefore they are practically living the life of a slave.
We cannot cure the ills of the world so long as a woman’s destiny remains conditional on having a living husband. All the noise we make about gender equality and opportunities for girls is compromised if that equality depends on having a husband and dies when he does.
The suffering of widows is a tragedy for millions of individuals that calls for a humanitarian response, but it is the systemic ingrained inequality of the sexes which is demonstrated and perpetuated by their treatment, that makes this a greater global challenge.
