NRI in Czech Republic strives to uplift 'marginalised' Roma

Chennai

"They (Romas) are a severely stigmatised and marginalised ethnic minority in Europe," Kumar Vishwanathan who landed in the Schengen country, then Czechoslovakia in the early 1990s, told PTI during a visit here.

His commitment led to the formation of unique housing project, now known as the "Vesnicka souziti" or "Coexistence Village" where the Romas and non-Romas co-exist. There are also poor elderly white families in the village.

After a Masters' degree in physics from the Patrice Lumumba People's Friendly University in Moscow, Viswanathan settled down there and married art student Ladislava Universalova, a Czech national.

Though he began his career there as a physics teacher in the 'historic' city of Olomouc, he noticed the plight of the Romas when the country was ravaged by floods in 1997. He took cognisance of the suffering of the Romas or gypsies as they are addressed derogatorily in Europe, in a neighbouring industrial city of Ostrava.

He claims the Romas have their roots in India "often sharing features from the sub-continent".

According to him, the Romas probably are an ancient Indian diaspora but later on, gradually mixed with other groups. "It is said they left India in the middle ages..."

There are about 20,000 Roma people in Ostrava, which is about 120 km from Olomouc and about 250,000 Roma of a total 10.3 million Czech population.

Deciding to turn human rights activist, he quit his teaching job to float the 'Vzajemne souziti' or 'Life Together' along with some students of Ostrava University and Roma community members in 1997.