Widow Warrior

IT WAS A HAPPY FAMILY. Seven siblings with doting parents in a small town in Punjab where their father ran a thriving general store. Tragedy loomed, however, and their father succumbed to TB. Raj Loomba, aged ten, registered the transformation in his mother''s life, widowed at only thirty-seven in the full bloom of life. Many years later, by now a successful businessman in the United Kingdom, Raj remembered that moment after his mother passed away – and in tribute to her, he resolved to focus on the plight of widows. His charity transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, but his ambition was far greater – to eradicate the scourge of widow discrimination altogether. His campaign attracted support from leading figures in governments, business and wider society, and what had seemed an impossible target – the declaration of an International Widows Day by the United Nations – is today a reality.