Hindus have asked for immediate desegregation of Roma pupils in Macedonia schools. Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that reportedly such a large percentage of Roma children in ‘special needs' schools meant for learning-disabled pupils was highly unacceptable. Reportedly discriminatory segregation policies of Roma children must end immediately and they should be placed in mainstream schools, Zed added. Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, also stressed the need of social inclusion of Roma in Macedonia, improvement in their dire living conditions, immediate end to their marginalization and ethnic profiling and addressing of their statelessness issue. Macedonia should show firm commitment and strong political will to improve the Roma plight. Rajan Zed applauded Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Nils Muižnieks for speaking out for human rights of Roma and their social cohesion in Macedonia and asking the authorities to address these, at the end of a recent four-day visit to the country. Zed further said that despite seven years into high-flown “Decade of Roma Inclusion 2005–2015" initiative, Roma people of Europe still reportedly lived in apartheid like conditions. Concrete steps were immediately needed to improve their plight, whose traces in Europe went back to ninth century CE, and who continued to face human rights violations and brazen structural discrimination. It was simply immoral to let this around 15-million population of Europe continually suffer. Rajan Zed pointed out that European Roma reportedly regularly faced racism, substandard education, hostility, social exclusion, joblessness, rampant illness, inadequate housing, lower life expectancy, unrest, living on desperate margins, language barriers, stereotypes, mistrust, rights violations, discrimination, marginalization, appalling living conditions, prejudice, human rights abuse, racist slogans on Internet, etc. Dr. Gjorge Ivanov and Nikola Gruevski are President and Prime Minister respectively of Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia; a mountainous landlocked country with extensive wilderness known for Mavrovo National Park, Sveti Naum monastery, culturally-rich town of Ohrid, etc. ** This is a press release from the Rajan Zed Foundation
