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Last week a major conference took place at City
Hall in central London organised by the Sikh Federation
(UK) and hosted by the Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.
Around 100 Gurdwaras and Sikh organisations sent
delegates with representatives from government
departments, such as the Home Office, Cabinet
Office, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and national
agencies such as the Charity Commission, Passport
Office and Office of the Commissioner for Public
Appointments.
The conference titled 'Making Sikhs Visible to
Decision Makers' was addressed by the Mayor. He
spoke about the background to the conference and
the importance for decision makers to recognise
the needs of the Sikh community who make a huge
contribution not only in London, but throughout
the UK. The purpose of the conference was to raise
awareness within decision making bodies about
the Sikh community and consider key issues and
concerns faced by the community today.
Last year the Mayor met with Sikh representatives
at a meeting organised by the Sikh Federation
to discuss the need to organise the first ever
conference to promote greater recognition and
understanding of the Sikh identity. The Mayor
committed to work with representatives from the
Sikh community to encourage public bodies to recognise
and monitor Sikhs as a separate and distinct ethnic
minority for the purposes of the Race Relations
(Amendment) Act. As a first and important step
he agreed that the Greater London Authority (GLA),
Transport for London (TfL) and the London Development
Agency (LDA) would set an example and start to
separately monitor Sikhs for not only employment
purposes, but also as regards monitoring so there
is fair provision of public services.
Sukhvinder Singh from the Sikh Federation (UK)
spoke after the Mayor and provided some background
to the day, highlighting some of the key issues
to be covered and setting the scene for the remainder
of the day. Ravinder Kaur from Young Sikhs (UK)
then spoke of the enormous contribution of Sikhs
reminding those present about the long Anglo-Sikh
history, the importance of the Sikh identity,
prominent British Sikh figures and the contribution
of Sikhs to mankind. The first session was concluded
by Detective Kolhi a representative from the Metropolitan
Police Sikh Association (MPSA) and currently working
in CID. He spoke about his experience as a visible
Sikh working in the Met for the last 16 years
and the role of the MPSA.
Dr Harkirtan Singh-Raud, widely tipped to become
the first visible Sikh to enter the UK Parliament
began the next session on 'Key issues facing Sikhs
today'. He presented well researched evidence
to show Sikhs were the largest and most visible
ethnic minority. This left those present in no
doubt that public bodies needed to start separately
monitoring Sikhs as soon as possible.
Rob Marris MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary
Group for UK Sikhs made clear that there was overwhelming
cross party support for Sikhs to be separately
monitored and for the Sikh identity to be properly
understood and safeguarded. Dominic Grieve MP,
the Shadow Attorney General reminded decision
makers from public bodies the legal justification
for Sikhs to be separately recognised and monitored
on the basis of the 1983 Mandla v Lee decision
in the House of Lords.
In the afternoon the conference touched upon the
European challenge to the British model of diversity
and how this was causing difficulties for Sikhs
not only in mainland Europe, but also Sikhs in
the UK. The freedom of Sikhs to travel across
Europe was being compromised and European regulations
were also affecting the rights of Sikhs to freely
practice their faith in the UK. Stephen Grosz,
one of the leading human rights solicitors in
the country outlined the European challenge. He
was followed by Mejindarpal Kaur from United Sikhs
who gave examples where Sikhs in the UK were facing
difficulties involving their identity. The conference
then heard a passionate appeal from Karamvir Singh
who travelled from France to highlight the discrimination
Sikh children and elders were increasingly facing.
The conference was chaired by Dabinderjit Singh
who concluded by posing a series of simple questions
to decision makers concerning Sikh numbers and
provision of public services. He indicted if they
were struggling to answer these questions it indicted
public bodies were failing the Sikh community.
Bhai Amrik Singh, the Chair of the Sikh Federation
(UK) said: "We are delighted that the conference
has given us an opportunity to explain to key
decision makers why proper recognition and monitoring
is vitally important, not only to the Sikh community
but also to public bodies. A report setting out
the key outcomes from the conference will be shared
with national and local decision makers throughout
the UK so we can push forward in gaining the recognition
that we deserve."
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