Last Friday the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Gypsy Communities opened in Kyiv’s Kozatsky Hotel under the initiative of Forumo Romen Ukrayinatar public organization. The event, whose honorable guests were representatives from the State Committee on Nationalities and Migration and Ukraine’s Ombudsperson Nina Karpachova, was aimed at defining topical problems of this nationality and helping Gypsies to integrate into Ukrainian society.
True, there are many problems waiting for solution. According to polling data, the level of tolerance toward Gypsies is even lower than toward Arabs, Asians, or Africans; there were even pogroms in the regions of Gypsies compact residence in Transcarpathia and Odesa oblast. At present there are no precise data on how many Gypsies live in Ukraine’s territory: experts use the data of the Soviet census (around 47,000), while the results of the last one had not yet been processed, and Gypsies themselves estimate it as 350,000. Most of their population (90%) is unemployed, which means temporary and often illegal work. The average life span has fallen to forty years and mortality risen dramatically, especially among children. As for education, it is worth mention that in the totalitarian state its level among Gypsies was significantly higher than today. According to the State Statistics Committee data, only five among every thousand Gypsies have specialized secondary education, less than a half incomplete secondary, and 384 elementary. In the words of Deputy Head of the State Committee on Nationalities and Migration Raul Chylachava, children often drop school in their third or fifth year or don’t go there at all.
Holding the congress was primarily a reaction to the concern about the Gypsy situation in Ukraine from international organizations. In spite of the law giving them equal rights with other national minorities, Gypsies’ community did not become any more equal: xenophobia toward them sometimes is reflected even in mass media, states Mr. Chylachava. For many it is easier to label a whole nation as criminal than to ponder on the question how to integrate them into our society.
Incidentally, according to polls conducted in Poland and the Czech Republic, Ukrainians are next to Gypsies in terms of the negative attitude from local societies.
