RELIGIONS NEWS AGENCY (REDNA) – In 2021 census in England, the Sikh community were relegated to a religious tick box.
As “Eastern Eye” reported British Sikh MP Preet Kaur Gill has said that the ONS decision not to include Sikhs as a legally protected ethnicity has relegated them to a religious tick box in the 2021 census, a statement said.
She added that the implications of the omission of the Sikh community as an ethnicity are serious.
“Sikhs face significant disadvantage in multiple areas of life, including education attainment, employment and health outcomes,” the lawmaker, who is also the chair of All-Party Parliamentary Groups for British Sikhs, said.
In a letter to Ian Diamond, the UK’s National Statistician, the MP pointed out that most public bodies collect data in line with the Census ethnicity question and not the religion question, therefore do not collect data on Sikhs.
The governments race disparity audit looked at 180 data sets and found no data on Sikhs. The community is invisible to policy makers
According to her, without the basic information of knowing how many Sikhs live in this country, the community is invisible to policymakers when it comes to tackling disadvantages.