Stand Up And Be Counted
Census forms are being brought to Traveller sites because, for the first time ever, people can mark their ethnic identity as a ‘Gypsy’ or ‘Irish Traveller’.
“The only way we can argue for better services is to make sure they can see and hear us,” argues Leeds Irish Traveller Eileen Lowther. “The best way to do that is to tick the Gypsy/Traveller box in the census in March 2011.”
She says they did their own ‘census’ of 1,071 Leeds Travellers: “we found out that our life expectancy, on average, is only 50 years. It was a bad shock but at least now the local health people are giving us the attention we weren’t getting before.”
Despite the reservations of those who belief in keeping their heads down, Helen Bray at Office of National Statistics says you can’t plan services if no-one knows how many Gypsies there are. “We really need Travellers to fill in their census questionnaires.”
It’ll be 100 years before any personal census information can be looked at