During the 1971 Indo-Pak war, a large number of brave Indian soldiers laid down their lives while defending the nation. Many families lost their main bread earners. The women and children were in great stress and facing trauma of losing their dear ones. The families of the 1965 conflict too had undergone the same problems and suffered a lot.

The Chairperson Dr V. Mohini Giri, Padma Bhushan made sincere effort to reduce the impact of war and violence on women and children after 1971 Indo – Pak war. The result of this conscientious effort on the part of Dr. Mrs. V. Mohini Giri and her group resulted in the formation of ‘THE WAR WIDOWS ASSOCIATION’ in December 1971. Some of the members of the group met with the former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi and discussed the problems faced by families of the martyrs of 1972 war. The former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi understood the gravity of the problem at hand and agreed to allot the land through DDA and gave financial aid for the construction of ‘SHAHEED BHAWAN’, the official premises of the War Widows Association (WWA).

The War Widows Association then became a registered NGO under the Societies Registration Act vide Registration No. 5230-1971-72. As per the MEMORANDUM of the WWA

• The registered office of the Association shall be situated in the Union Territory of Delhi.
• ‘WAR WIDOW’ is the wives of all the personnel of defense forces who lay down their lives while defending the motherland. Along with them the WWA also looks after the wives of the defense personnel who have been disabled in Counter Insurgency Operations and who have suffered permanent disability.
• There shall be following categories of members of WWA
  1. Life Members
  2. General Members
  3. Associate / Co- opted Members
• With the general consent of the Governing Body, any dignitary/dignitaries may be nominated as Chief Patron and Patrons of the WWA after securing their consent.
• The management of the WWA shall be vested in an Executive Committee consisting of maximum of eleven members comprising of the following:
  1. President----------------------- One
  2. Vice- President --------------- Two
  3. General Secretary ----------- One
  4. Joint Secretary---------------- One
  5. Treasurer ---------------------- One
  6. Joint Treasurer --------------- One
  7. Members----------------------- Four
• No change, amendment, additions, alterations or modifications shall be made in the ‘Memorandum of the Association’ and ‘Rules and Regulations’ except at a General Body Meeting called for the purpose.
• The members of the General Body of the Association shall elect the Executive Committee members as mentioned above once in three years amongst themselves.
• The Executive Committee shall meet at least once in three months.
• The Association will hold its Annual General Body meeting once in every calendar year before the end of September.
• The Financial Year of the Association will be from the 1st of April to the 31st of March of the next year.

The main objectives of WWA were:

• To provide selfless support to the war widows and take up their cause with the government.
• To take up and pursue the cause of the families of martyrs and missing defense personnel, tracing them for repatriation with the help of government.
• To enable the war widows and their children to get their entitlements as per the prevailing rules and law.
• To advocate with the government for better and uniform policies for the rehabilitation of all affected defense personnel.