Czech state to start collecting statistical data on Romanies

The Czech state will probably start gathering exact statistical data on Romanies, such as the number of unemployed Romanies and their level of education, Minister Dzamila Stehlikova said on Czech Television today.

Stehlikova, who is in charge of minorities and human rights, said the state needs the statistics to efficiently solve the problems related to the Romany community.

She said the government has discussed the idea several times already.

The state spends large sums on solving Romany issues but it fails to divide the money optimally among individual projects or assess the projects’ effect in a situation where it does not know, for instance, how many Romany kids attend individual schools or what the number of jobless Romanies is, Stehlikova (for the Greens, SZ) said.

The state has not collected the data so far for the sake of personal data protection. However, the government and lawyers believe that the data can be gathered if this were done in order to prevent people’s social exclusion or discrimination, Stehlikova said.
She said the European Commission shares the opinion.

Representatives of the self-rule regions and municipalities, who attended the televised debate, agreed with Stehlikova that data on the Romany community, including the number of Romanies living in the Czech Republic, are lacking.

"When you want to solve a problem, you need exact figures," said Jan Kubata, mayor of the north Bohemian centre Usti nad Labem.

He said that the municipality estimates the number of Romanies living in Usti, a town with a population of 97,000, at up to 15,000.
However, only 700 local residents claimed Romany ethnicity in the latest census, held in 2001.

Stehlikova said the next census will better focus on people’s ethnicity.