There are around 259 million widows around the world and a large number of them are forced to live in abject poverty and suffer ill-treatment as an ostracised community. International Widows’s Day is celebrated on 23 June in an effort to shed light on the plight of widows who are considered social stigma. The annual global day of action to highlight the desperate plight of millions of widows all over the world was launched by The Loomba Foundation in 2005 and following a five-year campaign was adopted unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010.

With conflicts in the Middle East, North Africa and other parts of the world claiming hundreds of thousands of lives annually, the population of widows has witnessed a significant rise. Some of these cleansing rituals include the practice of widows drinking the water with which their dead husband’s body has been washed and to have sex with a relative. Widows are often stigmatized by their families and communities. Many suffer discrimination based on age and gender.