India, June 18 -- I was only 11-year-old when my father Jagiri Lal Loomba died of tuberculosis, leaving my mother, Shrimati Pushpa Wati Loomba, widowed with seven children. My mother became a widow at the early age of 37. Despite the immense challenges my mother faced, she ensured that all her children received a good education. Her strength and resilience inspired me to lifelong determination to ensure that widows are treated with dignity and given opportunities for economic independence and social inclusion Forty three-year later, in 1997 I founded The Loomba Foundation, with the mission of supporting widows and educating their children in memory of my late mother, who was my inspiration.

In 1999, the then Prime Minister, Atal Behari V...