Extract from Lords debate
on Gypsy, Traveller and Roma Communities
The Lord :...My
colleague the most reverend Primate the has published a
book, Reimagining Britain. One of the tables in it shows that Roma
people and other groups are a barometer of many of our problems as
a civilised society. That is what I want to explore. Your Lordships
will know that Roma people are a migrant, unsettled people. They
are reputed to have come from northern India more than 1,000 years ago and
migrated into the Balkans and parts of Europe. What has been
highlighted in our experience of trying to work creatively with
Roma people in Derby is that while we have developed a way of
handling society and health issues through what I would call
settled systems, and it is difficult for people who do not have a
settled lifestyle to fit into such systems. Rather than thinking
that they are old-fashioned people who need to settle down and fit
into our settled systems, I think that they bring with them an
important challenge that the Minister might like to comment on. My
wife lives with me on the edge of Derby and works in London; she is
a mobile, modern person. It is very difficult for her to make an
appointment with the doctor, for instance, because the system is
settled but she has a flexible lifestyle. Many of the Roma people
are testing our systems, so we need to be creative. We need to be
pushed towards greater flexibility in dealing with these people,
not simply making them conform to things that might be too tight
for them...
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Extract from Lords debate
on International Women’s Day: Progress on Global Gender
Equality
(CB):...In
many countries there are laws to protect women—in India, for example, there are a lot. If you
were to ask a lawyer, they would tell you, “Oh, we have this, we
have that”. Ask them how much is enforced. Nothing is enforced,
or what is enforced is a minute fraction. It is no use having a
law that is not enforced. It is far better to have fewer laws
that are enforced. There are a lot of lawyers here today, so I am
sure they will agree with me.
In Africa and India put together there are 1 billion
women, and they do more work than the men in these areas—it is
said that women do more than three-quarters of the work. When I
was in Jamaica I saw the women doing far more work than the men.
I begged them to have a one-day strike and to do nothing except
look after the very sick and the children...
(Con):...Let me start on the global stage and set
the scene by looking at overpopulation—by which I mean the growth
of restless and surplus labour. This is a massive problem,
although it is by no means universal. Things are going the other
way in Japan, which has the highest living standards in the
world, and in much of the West. This gives us a clue about the
solution. If we look at the countries where population is growing
fastest, where unemployment is highest and where tensions are
greatest, without exception we find a common factor: female
illiteracy. The correlation is astonishing. Look at the high
birth rate in countries of sub-Saharan Africa and you will find
female illiteracy running at 50%, 60% or sometimes even 70% plus.
Among adult women in Pakistan it is 66%; it is 33% even
in India. Small wonder
that India’s population is set to overtake
that of China, where female illiteracy has been all but
eliminated...
(Con):...But
many girls and women around the world cannot speak out; like Recy
Taylor, they are given no voice. They have no education, no money
and little or no say in what happens in their lives or their
futures. Around the world we still have child marriages, the rape
of young girls, and girls and women enslaved in prostitution and
in enforced labour. Child marriage remains a huge issue for many
in countries such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia,
Ghana, India and Afghanistan. Despite the
welcome progress that has been made, as stated by UNICEF earlier
this week, one in five children is married before the age of 16.
Girls from the poorest families are the most disadvantaged and
are likely to be married much earlier than their wealthier
counterparts...
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