The Home Office has awarded a grant to the Hindu Forum of Britain (HFB) to conduct third party consultation workshops this autumn for their ‘Strength in Diversity’ white paper which seeks to implement the Government’s community cohesion and race equality strategy. The HFB is conducting the largest consultation exercise ever attempted for British Hindus through five workshops in Birmingham, Leicester, Bradford, Wembley and Crawley that will reach out to over 250 Hindu organisations.

“This is the first time that any umbrella organisation has sought the opinion of Hindu organisations on such a large scale to influence Government policy,” said Ramesh Kallidai, Secretary General of the Hindu Forum of Britain. “The Home Office have awarded us this grant to understand the concerns and needs of the Hindu community, and to reflect these in the policy that will affect important areas of Government thinking like citizenship, identity, race, immigration, civic renewal and other aspects of cohesion and equality.”

Three of the workshops have already been conducted in Birmingham, Wembley and Crawley, where over 150 organisations have participated and contributed to the debate.

“This is an important policy and we are keen that Hindus contribute to the coherent and honest debate that the Home Office seek to promote on this matter,” commented C B Patel, Chair of the Patrons Council of the Hindu Forum of Britain. “We urge Hindu organisations to read this paper and send their responses to the Hindu Forum so that a joint response can be provided from British Hindus.”

Bhavisha Tailor, the Youth Secretary of the Hindu Forum explained, “In addition to the workshops, we are also facilitating a separate feedback from Hindu youth, in partnership with the Hindu Youth UK and the National Hindu Students Forum.”

The workshops were facilitated by Carmel Heaney from the Experience Corps who has over two decades of experience in working with faith communities in Northern Ireland.

Top