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The set of problems relating to the Romany population in Czech Republic

Hence, it appears to us useful to present this country and the distinctive situation of a great number of street children who live there, in this newsletter. A situation which is rather similar in several countries of the former soviet countries, and is closely linked to the problems of the Romany population present in many other countries in this region.

Historical account of the situation of the Romany population in Europe.

The Romany’s origin is in India, where they lived and belonged to the most disfavoured social class, which encouraged their progressive migration to European countries such as Turkey, Rumania, Czechia, Slovakia, … However, in these new countries where they settled, their situation hardly improved.

Owing to their nomadic way of life, their skin colour, their rites and traditions, their style of clothes, they very quickly found themselves marginalized at their arrival in Christian Europe. Considered as inferior persons and perceived in a racist approach by the literature of the time, they found themselves generally exploited in degrading and badly paid works. This notwithstanding, the Europeans all the same wished to establish contact with these new inhabitants, interested by their knowledge in natural medicine, their handicraft and their various forms of art.

During the second world war, same as the Jews and the Slav population, the Romany population were the victims of the nazi genocide. After the war in Czechoslovakia, communism won the elections for the following forty years. One of the objects of the soviet government was to remodel these populations according to the image of the Bolshevik society, the families were displaced from the small hamlets in the suburbs to the centre of the industrial cities. There they were most often appointed as workers in the factories and in the mines. As a result, the Romany culture, several centuries old (fairy tales, songs, trades and know-how) no longer found any space to develop and be appreciated.

Situation of the Romany children in the Czech Republic

Nearly 20 years after the end of the communist period, the situation of social exclusion and poverty of the Romany populations in the Czech republic continues. In fact, this is an extremely complex and lasting problem.
Probably due to the destructive attitude of the communist regime which plunged them in a linguistic, social and cultural vacuum, the great majority among them underwent long lasting unemployment, or could only obtain employment without qualification. The children rarely go to school, most of them are directed to special education institutions. A lack of pre-scholar preparation and of parent support are part of the explanation. Also that students of the secondary or superior levels are scarcely represented as, very often, they are stopped very early in their school course.

Due to their way of community life, a great number of persons live in apartments of restricted space or in large abandoned buildings in the city suburbs. The trend over the last few years is a successive transfer towards the ghetto’s outside the cities where their integration in the new capitalist society can but be problematic. An evidence when one sees the generally insalubrious ghetto’s, where criminality (thefts, prostitution, drugs) develop, where children are not sent to school but wander in the street or stay at home to look after younger brothers and sisters.

The parents who always used to keep a strict eye on their daughters and their relationship with boys nowadays have given up their protective attitude. Therefore it is not seldom to see girls becoming prostitutes, and one also witnesses a great number of abandoned children, afterwards left in the care of an orphanage.
The Romany girls become mothers at a very early age, which does not happen without problems. These young girls without great sense of responsibility and feeble financial means, come up against great difficulties to raise their children. Very often these will be placed in an orphanage where they will not benefit from the necessary education and will very quickly find themselves wandering in the street.

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