Over 1,50,000 pounds have been raised for the welfare of 10,000 poor widows in India by a charity founded by Britain's House of Lords' member Raj Loomba.
The UN accredited Loomba Foundation, hosted its annual dinner at the Guildall here yesterday.
Speaking on the occasion, Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the foundation has been doing a "superb work" in trying to provide solace to widows who have been facing "terrible discrimination".
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Describing Lord Loomba's efforts as "heroic", Clegg said, "It is a wonderful effort and he has dedicated so much of his life for this cause".
Clegg, the chief guest at the event, said, "The crime and atrocity against widows has gone on far too long and it is high time the rights of these women are respected."
Lord Loomba said that last year the foundation launched a new project to empower 10,000 impoverished widows in India. Under the project, each of them received a sewing machine and training to make garments, giving them economic freedom.
"The impact of this project would be that not only 10,000 widows will be economically empowered, but they will also educate about 30,000 children assuming that they have three children on average. They will further support 60,000 of their family members assuming there are around six family members in each household. Therefore, 100,000 people stand to benefit from this project," Lord Loomba said.
While funds for 7,000 widows were raised last year, Loomba said that the money raised this year would benefit the remaining 3,000.
"The Foundation has already attracted partners to join us going forward. The Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance at the University of Northampton is assisting us over the next three years with their expertise in social metrics and measuring social value of corporates," he said.
He said British business tycoon Richard Branson, the Patron-in-Chief of the foundation, has been supporting it since 2002 and has collected over 5,00,000 pounds.
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie Blair, the President of the Foundation, said over 245 million widows and their 500 million children around the world suffers social injustice in silence.
Acting High Commissioner of India to the UK Virendra Paul said, "the plight of widows and other women is a fact of life. We cannot and should not ignore it. They need our support. It is a global challenge and the whole society has to come together - Government, international institutions, business and social activists in tackling the issue."
He said Government of India is extremely sensitive to the issue and trying to tackle it.
"A lot has been done and more needs to be done for erasing the stigma attached to them and help them economically," he said.
The event was attended by Lord Navnit Dholakia, Lord Karan Billimoria and Britain's Minister for Justice Lord Tom McNally, among others.
