International Women’s Day

Lord Loomba Excerpts

Tuesday 10th March 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Loomba (CB)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baronesses, Lady Berridge and Lady Sugg, for the opportunity to speak today on a very important issue that does not lessen with time: equality for women and girls worldwide. It is an issue that has been at the forefront of Governments’ agendas for decades, yet progress is disappointingly slow. Women do not have equality or parity with their male colleagues, relatives, friends and acquaintances.

One of the key ways to improve gender equality is by ensuring that women and girls have the right skills, education, training and access to capital to allow them to realise their potential, start up businesses, create successful companies and add to the national and global economy. This is the 21st century, yet statistics tell a story of undeniable gaps in pay for women across the globe. There are women who manage to carve out careers and input into the economy, but, on the other hand, women and girls all over the world suffer through discrimination, domestic abuse, sexual harassment, trafficking, prostitution and so on.

Unfortunately, the fate of a woman is even worse as and when she loses her husband. According to UN Women, there are 285 million widows around the world and, sadly, their number is increasing due to poverty, disease and conflict. Many of them are living below the poverty line. They are uneducated and cannot get a job. Therefore, they are dependent on their family members. Without going into too much detail, I can tell noble Lords that they are living a life of modern slavery. I declare an interest as founder and chairman trustee of the Loomba Foundation. My noble friend Lord Bilimoria has been a big supporter of the Loomba Foundation from the beginning and I thank him.

One of the main aims of the Loomba Foundation is to help widows establish economic stability for themselves and their family by providing skills training so that they can support themselves. The training we do, such as supporting women to learn sewing skills so that they can start their own business, empowers them. It allows them, sometimes for the first time, to educate their children and provide for their families without fear of going hungry through reliance on others. The 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.

The United Nations has called for action to mobilise economic justice and rights for all, gender equality and feminist leadership. These can be brought about by ensuring that all women, including widows, have access to education, the right skills training, and capital to allow them to start and grow businesses. Imagine a world with more females at the helm, in business and in government—it is something we should all strive to facilitate.

Widows are most vulnerable, as you just heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross. They are victims of double discrimination as women and widows. The Loomba Foundation brought their plight to the attention of the United Nations. At its 65th General Assembly in 2010, the UN adopted 23 June as the United Nations International Widows Day. It is a day of effective action to raise awareness of the plight of widows around the world. It is a significant day, if I may say so, because on this very day my mother became a widow in India in 1954. 1 was 10 years old and saw first-hand the discrimination and suffering my mother faced. It was not her fault—she did not kill my father—yet she suffered at the hands of the community for the rest of her life until she passed away in 1992.

I would like to ask the Minister whether the Government have any plans to help unfortunate widows and unmarried girls in developing countries, through education and skills training, which the Loomba Foundation considers vital and most important. It would not only make them self-reliant but change the mindset of people around them, letting them live a decent and dignified life.