Extracts from Lords debate on International Women's Day - Mar 10

Lord Bilimoria (CB): My Lords, this is the 25th anniversary of the Beijing declaration. Right up front I pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Loomba, who founded the Loomba Foundation for poor widows, initially in India and then around the world. I have been proud to be chair of the advisory council since its inception in 1997. He should also be given credit for securing UN recognition for International Widows Day on 23 June each year. This has done so much to change attitudes and raise awareness for the plight of widows around the world, including educating widows’ children. I am so looking forward to the maiden speech of my friend, the noble Lord, Lord Ranger...

...India, where I was born, had a woman Prime Minister in Indira Gandhi well before we had Margaret Thatcher over here. Although we have had two Chancellors of the Exchequer, one after the other, who are British Asians—my friends Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak—India had its first female Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, last year. We are yet to have a female Chancellor of the Exchequer in this country. An American consultancy firm, Korn Ferry, found in its research a few years ago that women outperform men in 11 of 12 key emotional intelligence competencies...

Lord Ranger (Con) (Maiden Speech):...I was born during the partition of India. We found ourselves on the wrong side of the new border. My father was a visionary and could foretell the consequences of religious disharmony. He was against the partition of India based on religion, as he was a firm believer in a united India free of religious rivalry, with all her people living together in harmony. He said that India’s diversity was like the colours of a rainbow; her charm would diminish if one were removed.

Sadly, our father was assassinated at the young age of 42 when trying to save students of a local school who had taken part in a procession opposing the division of India but got caught in communal riots. Our father managed to save the students but lost his life for Hindu-Muslim unity in India. I am a posthumous child; I was born 20 days after the death of our illustrious father.

My life began in a refugee camp in India without a father but with a remarkable mother. Our mother was widowed at the young age of just 35, with seven children. I was born 20 days later, taking our number to eight, with the oldest being 14. She had lost her country, ancestral home and husband, and whatever could go wrong for her, did. She was told by her family to put us all in an orphanage, as it would be challenging to manage eight of us on her own in a new country without a husband or family wealth. She refused to give up her children and accepted what fate had thrown at her. Luckily, she was educated at a time when many did not teach their girls, and was thus able to gain employment at a local primary school.

Our future would have been very different if our mother had not been educated. She brought us up through immense difficulties. Her words to us were, “You may starve, but you will study”. The result: five of her sons became commissioned officers in the Indian Army, and she received the title of the “Proudest Indian Mother” for having her sons serve in the defence of India...

Lord Hussain (LD):...One such country, where women live in the most appalling conditions, is a close friend of the United Kingdom, a member of the British Commonwealth and the proclaimed largest democracy in the world: India specifically Kashmir, where, according to many international human rights organisations, the army frequently forces its way into people’s homes in the darkness of night, beating up men and women, young and old, and taking young men to unknown detention centres often far from their homes. Tens of thousands of men have been taken away and have not come back for a very long time. The whereabouts of many are still not known to their families. Thousands of women, whose husbands have been missing for decades, are known as half-widows. The discovery of thousands of mass graves in Kashmir adds to the worry and agony of these women. They spend the rest of their lives searching for their loved ones.

To add to their dreadful conditions, those women are often gang-raped by the country’s army with complete impunity. There are many cases in Kashmir of rape carried out by the Indian Armed Forces. Some of these cases are well documented and have received worldwide press coverage, but to my knowledge no prosecution has ever taken place. For example, if you google “Kunan Poshpora rape case” you will find reports from Amnesty International, the UN Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights Watch and Indian human rights organisations, reported by the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, the Indian Express, the Diplomat, the Hindustan Times, Greater Kashmir, the Asian Age and many other media groups. This case is 30 years’ old: an entire army unit moved into two adjoining villages, took the men and boys out to the nearby army camp and gang-raped women from eight years of age to 80. Despite the worldwide uproar, no prosecution has ever taken place, as the army is protected under the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. I understand that the Indian Army is continuously using rape as a weapon of war in Kashmir; there are many more cases of this nature, taking the number of victims into the thousands.

Just for a moment, put yourselves in the place of the Kashmiri women and think what you would ask of parliamentarians from countries such as the United Kingdom? I have raised the plight of Kashmiri women many times from the Floor of this House, unfortunately without getting a satisfactory answer from Ministers. Will noble Lords join me in asking the Minister what the Government are prepared to do to get justice for these Kashmiri victims of state-led brutalities? Will she ask the Foreign Secretary to raise this with his Indian counterpart before we sign more trade deals with India to bring an end to the impunity provided by the Indian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and bring those responsible for these horrendous crimes to justice?

To read the whole debate, Click Here