Sikh organizations of UK recently released “The Sikh Manifesto 2015-2020“. The document is released ahead of general elections for the British parliament. It is considered to be first document of it’s kind by the Sikh diaspora in England. Sikh Siyasat News has decided to serialize this document for it’s readers. Text below is verbatim reproduction of “SECTION 4” (titled: ACTION AGAINST PERPETRATORS OF GROOMING AND FORCED CONVERSIONS) part of the Sikh Manifesto). – Editor, Sikh Siyasat News.
The Sikh Manifesto 2015-2020
***
SECTION 4- ACTION AGAINST PERPETRATORS OF GROOMING AND FORCED CONVERSIONS
Determined UK Government action against perpetrators of grooming and forced conversions and abandonment of the term ‘Asian’ by public bodies and the media
Key priorities:
- National , regional and local bodies set up to protect children and vulnerable adults against grooming and forced conversions take co-ordinated action against perpetrators working with Sikh community organisations supporting victims and their families.
- The UK Government should issue guidance to have accurate reporting systems and protocols across the country that identifies the ethnicities of victims and perpetrators of grooming and forced conversions to develop and deliver culturally sensitive strategies.
- The UK Government should provide funding to Sikh community organisations specialising in tackling Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and forced conversions and facilitate collaborative working with specialist service providers. This would include funding for cultural awareness training in relation to the Sikh community for front line professionals such as police, social service, teachers and medical professionals.
- The government should encourage public bodies and the media to abandon the use of the term ‘Asian’ for reasons of political correctness.
Background
Grooming is a term that is applied to where a predator builds an emotional connection with children to gain their trust for the purposes of sexual abuse or exploitation. Children and young people can be groomed online or in the real world, by a stranger or by someone they know. Many children and young people do not always understand that they have been groomed; they fail to recognise it as sexual abuse. Recent media and public attention has mainly focused on White British female victims of sexual exploitation and Muslim offenders.
CSE of young people under 18 involves exploitative situations, contexts and relationships where the young person (or third person/s) receive ‘something’ (e.g. food, accommodation, drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, affection, gifts, money) as a result of them performing, and/or others performing on them, sexual activities. CSE can occur through the use of technology without the child’s immediate recognition; for example being persuaded to post images on the internet/mobile phones without immediate payment or gain. Grooming is often linked to forced conversions.
British Sikh girls are at risk of grooming and forced conversions – 15 months ago a BBC Inside Out investigation uncovered that British Sikh girls are being preyed upon by men who subject them to sexual abuse. In many cases the men deceive the girls into believing that they are Sikh to gain their trust. Desperate to hide their secret for fear of bringing shame to their families, girls are often forced to leave home. Inside Out discovered that groomers are actually exploiting the fact that Sikh families are less likely to report incidents of abuse. The threat of shame (sharam) and dis-honour (beizti) appears to be a key instrument of control for victims of Sikh background.
Child sexual grooming of Sikh girls is under-reported – It is difficult to ascertain the scale of grooming and sexual exploitation due to the reluctance of victims to disclose and report. They have specific vulnerabilities relating to their culture which are exploited and also constitute a barrier to disclosure and reporting.The Sikh Awareness Society (SAS), a charity which focuses on family welfare, claims it has investigated more than 200 reports of child sexual grooming in the UK over the past five years, many involving Muslim men. However, there are no official statistics to support this claim, because incidents of sexual abuse featuring Sikh minors are rarely reported to the authorities.
When it comes to faith-based communities sexual abuse is woefully under-reported. It is going on but it is difficult to launch investigations when the victims and their families refuse to talk. The reason Sikhs rarely reveal incidents of abuse to the authorities has to do with family honour. As part of this code of honour, virginity before marriage is held sacred by Sikhs. So when cases of abuse occur the majority of parents just want to stay quiet as if nothing has happened because they know that a girl who is tarnished with this kind of thing may never get married.
Parents may be doing these things out of the best intentions but the problem is that by telling the child to keep quiet, the children will not get a chance to recover from the ordeal. Removing them from the home, from their original support network, gives a very strong message that they are the problem and that can lead to enormous long-standing emotional and psychological issues.
Cases are poorly investigated by the police–When some Sikh parents are brave enough to risk family honour and do report incidents of sexual grooming to the police, there are concerns that their cases are poorly investigated. Recent revelations suggest political correctness and pressure from local politicians belonging to the same community as the perpetrators prevents police from undertaking proper investigations.
Accurate reporting systems and protocols that identify the ethnicities of victims and perpetrators- A consistent protocol for accurate reporting is required nationally. Reporting systems which accurately identify ethnicities of victims and perpetrators are required. This will enable factual reporting of the prevalence of SCE and forced conversions within different communities based on ethnicity. This will enable greater awareness and development and delivery of culturally sensitive strategies.
Funding to Sikh community organisations specialising in tackling CSE and forced conversions – Voluntary, community and faith groups play an important role within the community by providing services and support to children and their families. They have a duty to ensure that they are able to keep children safe and that the governance structures are in place in their organisations to ensure this.
NGO’s tackling CSE and forced conversions at a community level need to be financially supported by central and local government as they are most likely to be a trusted point of contact for victims. Government needs to facilitate collaborative working between organisations such as SAS and the Sikh Helpline and specialist service providers so resources can be shared and awareness training rolled out throughout the UK.
There is a general feeling that the larger, well known charities are often well funded or preferred by Government; however, the smaller, grassroots charities that are equally making a difference and have the relationships to quickly influence change are overlooked. Government funding to specialist service providers could therefore require partnership working with Sikh charities to develop capacity resulting in more support for victims and those at risk.
Cultural awareness training specifically looking at the Sikh community is currently missing from front line professionals such as police, social service, teachers and medical professionals. There is significant evidence that failure to act by professionals is a fear of being labelled racist or a lack of understanding between religion and culture. Giving professionals the confidence through cultural awareness will help bridge the gap of ignorance.
Abandoning the throwaway term ‘Asian’ – It has become apparent in recent media reports that the term ‘Asian’ is being used to cloud specific issues with Pakistani and other communities. Hindu and Sikh organisations have been vocal in demanding a better more accurate way of reporting. This throwaway term is being used to distort information that relate to the different groups. The impact of this is that vague reporting often done so as not to offend certain groups, creates an inaccurate and misleading public perception of Sikhs, it also clouds responsibility so that groups who can and should be working within their community to tackle issues are not being mobilised. There is evidence of a disproportionally high number of people from the Pakistani Muslim community that have been found guilty of committing crimes e.g. child grooming or honour killings.
***