International Women’s Day

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Friday 8th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Loomba (CB)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as chairman and trustee of the Loomba Foundation. A court in India is currently considering an application by a young woman, aged 25, to allow the medical termination of her pregnancy on the grounds that she suffered cruelty and marital rape by her husband, against whom she had earlier filed a petition for divorce. The young woman is currently 20 weeks pregnant, and medical terminations are permissible in India until 24 weeks of pregnancy on various grounds, including change of marital status during the pregnancy such as widowhood or divorce. The young woman has initiated divorce proceedings, but the husband has not consented to them. The case is ongoing and will be concluded imminently.

I tell noble Lords this story because it is an all too commonplace, everyday situation where women, not only in India but in many countries around the world, find that the odds are stacked against them. The law can be a blunt instrument and a slow process when it comes to dealing with situations like this, however enlightened some judges may be. A young woman who has no money or support network should be as entitled as any other to protection from the law to escape from violence and oppression. The prospects of single parenthood and poverty are bleak indeed. A young woman’s ability to free herself from the situation of domestic violence and rape, and to make choices based on the circumstances she then has to face, should be enabled and respected.

As many of your Lordships know, my primary concern has long been the plight of widows and their dependants around the world. But today, as we discuss International Women’s Day, I am thinking of the women trapped in violent marriages and women who, after divorce, can face very similar prejudices, such as being ostracised from families, unable to provide for their dependants and vulnerable to exploitation. As with widowhood, blame often plays a part in marginalising women, and that blame is not only vaguely justified but completely irrelevant to the women’s circumstances and need.

My plea today is that, while we celebrate women’s empowerment and seek to build on the progress made in this country, as in many others, we remember those for whom time has stood still and who remain as oppressed as ever they were. Let us give special thought to women who are marginalised by society, to women trapped in abusive marriages, to women running households singlehandedly for whatever reason. My plea is for respect, understanding and empowerment, to do what we can to provide support for those who need it most, and to change cultures and open hearts and minds to genuine equality of treatment for women, as individuals and by society.

Queen’s Speech

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Wednesday 11th June 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Loomba (LD)]

My Lords, I welcome the gracious Speech. This year, without much fanfare, Bill Cash MP introduced a fundamentally important Private Member’s Bill. As noble Lords will recall, the International Development (Gender Equality) Bill received such unanimous support that it sailed through both Houses without any problem and received Royal Assent in March. It alters the very nature of the law that governs the UK’s aid decisions.

We put at the very heart of the International Development Act 2002 the necessity of the Secretary of State to direct funds with the aim of reducing inequality between men and women. It also forced the Government to cast a critical eye over the aid we give as a country, and to consider whether we are doing all that we can do to work towards MDG 3.

The UK can be a little smug about some of the millennium development goals, but there is no cause for self-congratulation just yet. Goal 3—to promote gender equality and empower women—will never be reached if we ignore the specific economic challenges faced by one group of women in particular. Noble Lords will not be surprised to hear that I am talking about widows. Every time I get to my feet in this House, noble Lords may think, “There he is, talking about widows again”. However, just a few weeks ago the British Army lost five men in a disastrous helicopter crash in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Three of those men left wives behind, but do we stop to think what that means? It is impossible to imagine how devastated their widows must feel.

I declare my interest as a founder and chairman trustee of the Loomba Foundation. We all know by now that there are more than 245 million widows around the world, with 500 million children. Through no fault of their own, many of them face many challenges such as discrimination and physical, psychological and sexual abuse. The question is: is Britain doing its bit to end these practices, empower widows and ensure that they and their children are treated as full members of society, or does our Department for International Development prefer to ignore the millions who are voiceless in order to tiptoe around cultural sensitivities?

As a country we spend more than £150 million in India—2% of DfID’s current budget. One of the four goals for DfID in India is to improve the lives of more than 10 million poor women and girls. Yet, among the 6,500 words the Government use to outline their operational plan in India, the word “widow” does not appear once. The current plan for UK aid to India finishes in 2015, after which our contribution will fall to just £29 million by 2016-17. However, even as we give less to India financially, we can give more intelligently.

First, we need to name the problem. Discrimination against widows and their children is real, so why do we not mention it? The UK is outspoken about the need to empower Dalit girls, but widows and their children in every state and social class can be seen as just as untouchable and as easy victims. Secondly, we need to continue to work with the Indian Government and partner groups to empower women and girls, and to improve gender equality. Cruelty towards widows is embedded in a culture that says that when a woman loses her husband, she has no real life any more. That is cultural suttee, and it can happen only when women’s inferiority is taken for granted.

Thirdly, we need to ensure that DfID leads the way in showing other nations that widowhood means an extra layer of difficulty through which many women and girls have to fight. As we move towards the next round of MDGs, and since UN Women has designated 23 June as International Widows’ Day, I ask the Department for International Development to work closely with UN Women to include the plight of widows in the post-MDG framework.