Every war leads to destruction and breakup in families, where soldiers who may be fathers, sons or husbands lose their lives. The War Widows Association was started as a necessity to serve the needs of those women and wives who were left helpless due to the martyrdom of their male members. The organization was registered as an Association in 1971 under the Societies Registration Act of 1860 amended in 1957.
Its basic mission has been to provide emotional and economic support to enable wives and children of martyrs to live their lives with dignity.
According to the mandate of the organization, the following concerns are attended to:
- Provide support to war widows and take up their cause with the government including the problems of those women whose husbands were missing in action. Repatriation of families with the help of government support became a major concern.
- Enable widows and their children to get their entitlements according to the rules framed by the government, for defence personnel of all categories. Advocate with the government for better and uniform policy for the rehabilitation of the families of all affected defence personnel.
- To organize such programs as general health and legal awareness, seminars and workshops on issues of concern, and arrange recreational and cultural activities. Organize skill training centres for economic empowerment of widows, the elderly and young children.
- It is often very difficult to locate widows and parents from distant areas and the War Widows Association takes the support of Rajya Sainik Boards and Zila Sainik Boards to help them in the process of locating and collecting details, regarding widows of war and conflict, throughout the country.
The War Widows Association works through several activities to ensure that veer naries and their families are able to become socially and economically strong. To make this possible the following activities are undertaken.
- Interaction with Ex-servicemen's League and Zila Sainik Boards to get concrete information about widows who need attention, and become partners with them, in providing necessary services.
- Programs under the Dialogue Centre: Meetings, seminars on various issues are organized to provide information to widows of war and conflict and other members in Delhi. Similar programs are sometimes organized in other places, if required.
- Skill training on tailoring, computer education, spoken English, beauty culture etc, for children and young girls of less privileged communities are also conducted.