'bangle' Supporters Petition Pm

JagtarSinghKhalsa · June 13, 2008

'Bangle' supporters petition PM

The family of a Sikh girl excluded from school for wearing a religious bangle will hand in a petition to Downing Street.

Sarika Singh, 14, and her family are calling on the Prime Minister to intervene over the row.

The teenager has been excluded from Aberdare Girls' School since November 2007 for wearing a Kara bangle.

Supporters of the family will also go to the High Court in London on Tuesday to argue against the school's decision.

The petition is to highlight the strength of feeling in the Sikh community who are fully behind the family

Jagtar Singh, Sikh Federation (UK)

The petition has been organised by the Sikh Federation (UK) and National Sikh Resource Centre.

The petition has the support of 150 Gurdwaras – the main Sikh institutions - and over 250 Sikh organisations throughout the UK.

The campaigners also say the petition is being supported by around 70 non-Sikh organisations, including civil liberty and anti-racist groups, as well as trade unions.

The petition, addressed to Gordon Brown, lists a number of organisations and then states that the following "call upon you to intervene in the case of Sarika Singh to show discrimination is totally unacceptable."

Jagtar Singh, spokesman for the Sikh Federation (UK), said: "The primary purpose of the petition with the High Court case next week is to bring it to the attention of the general public.

"...this is to highlight the strength of feeling in the Sikh community who are fully behind the family. It has much wider implications for Sikhs in other parts of the UK.

"It's about discrimination and Sikhs are protected under law. The school has made it into an issue about the Kara."

They also draw attention to the High Court hearing, where they say, Aberdare Girls School has "breached race relations and human rights laws and is ignoring the 1983 Mandla v Lee case from the House of Lords that forms the basis on which Sikhs are protected against discrimination."

In January, Rhondda Cynon Taf council told the school's governors it would no longer give them any more support or financial assistance and confirmed this was continuing for the court case.

A spokesman for the council said at the time: "The current court case essentially involves the school and the family.

"The council is not providing any support or financial assistance with regard to this matter for as long as the current situation prevails.

"Matters of funding are therefore the responsibility of those involved in the legal proceedings and any queries should therefore be directly addressed to them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7451534.stm