The Loomba Foundation has organised a charity concert for empowerment of widowed women in Haryana, with state Education Minister Ram Bilas Sharma as chief guest. The concert was aimed at raising funds to empower 1,000 widows and female inmates of the 19 district prisons in Haryana.
Star of the evening was Gurdas Maan, who began his performance by offering prayers and saluting the soldiers. The show was studded with energetic bhangra dance performances and solos sung by popular dancer and singer, Satinder Satti. Ram Bilas Sharma stressed on work done by his government for the uplift of widows and women. He said, "India's philosophy is based on sacrifice and philanthropy. On 22 January 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao campaign in Haryana. Our government gives Rs 1,600 as pension for poor widows and we also provide Rs 51,000 as a grant for wedding of the daughters of impoverished widows. There are 250 million widows and 580 million children in the world. The desire to want to help them and empower them requires the kind of passion that Lord Loomba has. I hope that this plant sown by Lord Loomba bears fruits for the uplift of widows for years to come."
Founder and Chairman-Trustee Lord Raj Loomba CBE showed a video of the work done by the foundation including the Varanasi project flagged off by PM Modi. He stressed on the urgency and encouraged the audience to help raise funds. "Widows are the victims of double discrimination. India alone has more than 46.5 million widows and I sincerely hope that more and more people will play a bigger role in eradicating the stigma related to widowhood," Lord Loomba said. UK's former First Lady and President of the foundation, Cherie Blair CBE QC, said, "Even in this hall, each one of us has had a widow in their friends, relatives or family. It matters all over the world because we are not giving everyone an equal chance in life. I love the work we do at The Loomba Foundation because while providing a sewing machine and training may be a small business, it goes a long way in supporting the widows and their children, who deserve a better life."
The event was attended by at least 1,000 people, and dignitaries including the foundation's trustee, Chairperson of the Oswal Group and International Director of Lions Club, Aruna Abhey Oswal, Punjab Finance Minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa, Andhra Pradesh Member of the Parliament Kesineni Srinivas Nani, renowned scribe Sir Mark Tully, FICCI Secretary General Didar Singh, The Loomba Foundation's Trustee and convener of the One Globe Forum Harjiv Singh, amongst others.
The Loomba Foundation assists over 15,000 impoverished widows in nine states, and in almost two decades, has provided five-year-long education scholarships to over 10,000 children of poor widows and supported more than 60,000 of their family members across 29 states in India.
