UNITED KINGDOM, July 23, 2018 (Financial Express): Sikhism is being considered as a separate ethnicity in the next UK census in 2021, following a long-standing demand by some British Sikh groups. The UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) had opened a public consultation over whether to add the separate box for Sikhs under ethnicity, instead of just as a religion, and are now getting ready to present the findings to the government. “Our recommendations for the 2021 Census will be included in a government White Paper later this year,” an ONS spokesperson said. The ONS had raised concerns over the issue of “public acceptability” and whether the move would have backing across Britain’s 430,000-strong Sikh community.
According to some British Sikh groups, public bodies tend to only reference the ethnic groups used in the census and demand a separate Sikh ethnic tick box to ensure Sikhs have fair access to all public services. “If the Census 2021 ethnicity question does not include a Sikh tick box question, the impact from a service user perspective will continue to grow and result in Sikhs being invisible to those who develop policies and deliver public services. This will span across the inequalities observed by Sikhs in health, education, employment etc,” Sikh Federation UK and Sikh Network have said as part of their representations to the ONS. A decision on whether to include Sikhism as a distinct ethnic identity in the next census is some way off, as the government looks into all sides of the argument from later this year.