Post by Manmohan Rawat

#grrf Special Day Update 23 June: International Widow Day International Widows Day, observed every year on June 23, was recognised by the United Nations in 2010, but the campaign behind it began earlier with the efforts of entrepreneur and House of Lords Lord Raj Loomba. Today, the 83-year-old philanthropist from Punjab, who has been settled in the United Kingdom for more than five decades, is known as the “Pioneer of Widows” for his work supporting widows and their children worldwide. The movement was inspired by a personal experience. In 1954, when Raj Loomba was ten years old, his father Jagiri Lal Loomba, a businessman in Punjab, died of tuberculosis on June 23. Significantly, this day became the International Widows Day. His mother was only 37 when he died. Loomba says the day after his father’s death, his grandmother ordered his mother to remove her bangles, jewellery and bindi, and to wear only white clothes. Her transformation into a widow left a lasting impression on him. Years later, another incident strengthened his resolve. “When I got married to Veena Chaudhry from Ludhiana, we were enraged when the priest asked my mother to sit away from the altar because, as a widow, she would bring bad luck,” Lord Loomba said. “How could the mother who gave birth to me, educated me and wished me well bring bad luck?” After his mother’s death, Lord Loomba and his wife founded the Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba Foundation in 1997 in her memory. The organisation, now known as The Loomba Foundation, was created to fight the injustices faced by widows and their children through education, empowerment and advocacy. Over the years, the foundation has expanded its projects across India. Last year, it launched a programme in Vrindavan to train 1,000 widows as General Duty Assistants in healthcare. On September 30, 2025, the foundation and CII Foundation launched the healthcare training initiative in Mathura. “Our project to empower 5,000 widows in Varanasi was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Lord Loomba said. “We are educating more than 10,000 children of poor widows across all 30 states of the country.” #grrf #LoombaFoundation #widow #education #livelyhood #training #empowerment #WorldWidowDay #Kapurthala #Punjab #incredibleindia #linkedin