Slovak Romanies in vicious circle - press

The Slovak government has launched a number of programmes for the improvement of Slovak Romanies’ lives, but they have encountered an insurmountable obstacle as the Romanies refuse to change most of their habits, Czech paper Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes today.

"It is a vicious circle. If something is to be changed, it must be above all their minds. This is doubly true of children and the young generation," psychologist Anna Jagyova is quoted as saying by the paper.

"Children encounter bad habits from early on. This means insufficient personal hygiene, bad food habits, alcohol and cigarette abuse and, last but not least, promiscuity," Jagyova said.

According to some estimates, there are maybe 600,000 Romanies in the 5-million Slovakia, though the 2001 population census only recorded 90,000 of them.

Field workers who constantly monitor the Romanies’ shanty towns warn of the occurrence of dangerous diseases. Romanies ignore everything that concerns health, HN writes.

According to the official statistics, Romanies’ life expectancy is 15 years shorter than among the rest.

The programme for the support of health of the disadvantaged communities says men only have the average life expectancy of 55 years and women of 59 years. The national average is 70 and 78 years respectively.

The average age of the living Romanies is just below 26 years, HN writes.

Tary Mukherjee, chairman of the European Multicultural Foundation, said the situation of Romanies in eastern Slovakia was worse than in Calcutta slums from where he hails.

Government commissioner Anina Botosova dismissed Mukherjee’s criticism that the government’s steps were insufficient as they did not motivate Romanies, preferring assimilation to integration.

"Some Romanies do not have any working habits. We need at least 20 years for the next generation of Romanies to be changed and to have a chance of succeeding," Deputy Prime Minister for Ethnic Minorities Dusan Caplovic is quoted as having said.

Slovakia is to receive 200 million euros to upgrade Romanies’ education and employment by 2013.

The government will earmark another 416 million crowns from its budget by 2010 and it will spend another 94 million crowns on the Romanies’ health by 2015, HN writes.