Title: Pardubice as a town
Author: Alice Ondruchov8
Last saved by: Ján Andruch
Company: Floyd Studio

Access of the Roma Minority to the Public Services
in the Pardubice Municipality, Czech Republic

The town
With its aproximatelly 92.000 inhabitants, Pardubice is the 10th biggest town in the Czech republic. It is situated in Easter Bohemia, about 100 km from the capital city of Prague. It has a very good railway connection with the rest of the republic, university, and mostly chemical (Synthesia) and electronic (Foxcom) industry. The rate of unemployment is rather low, about 5,8 in the town (compared to 8,7 in Czech republic at the same time.)

Numbers provided are from the June 30, 2000 if not stated otherwise.

Minorities
There is about 1.000 Roma living in Pardubice, the number that is very aproximate. In the census only 160 citizens declared to be Roma, compared for example to 1.374 people who stated to be of the Slovak nationality. In Pardubice started to live employees of the Tchajwanees company Foxcom with their families and there is also Vietnamees community.

Compared to other national minorities, Roma are the most distinct as they look different, and are the subject to prejudice. 

Roma have been comming to Pardubice after the second world war, since 1947. Biggest part of the Roma community comes mostly from towns and villages near Kosice. Their settlement in the town is mostly scattered, there are no special Roma settlements except for a few separate houses, that are known to be inhabited with the Roma. 

Legal framework
At the present Czech republic is going through a process of the transformation of the state and local administration. District as a state administration unit is folding up and the new level – regional self-governing unit is still not completely established. This also influences the municipal level as some responsibilities are expected to shift from the district to the municipality.

Local governments´ role in providing of public services in CR
There are two areas that the municipality is responsible for: the state administration and the self-government administration. It is important to distinguish between the two and afterwords to recognize an approach that the municipality is using within the given framework.

Thus we are mostly interested in different ways in which various local governments respond to the needs of the ethnic and national minorities living on its territory and the focus of the research is on the self-governing part of the admininstration.

The Law on the Municipalities (from 2000) states that the municipality is taking care of „the creation of the conditions for a promotion of the social care and for a satisfaction of the needs of its citizens. … especially the needs for housing, protection and promotion of the health, transportation and communications, needs for information, upbringing and education, cultural development generally and protection of public order.“ All the information about the role of Pardubice Municipality, the City council and City representatives is publicaly available on the municipal Internet pages.

Method 
There are several sources for collecting the information about the position of the minority and the town: statistical data, interviews and document analysis, one can also try to be an observer and participant at the formal and informal meetings, interviews and during the processes. 

As the content of the search, one tries to find the major issues of a minority on one side and the position of a municipality (e.g. whether an issue belongs under the municipal responsibility) on the other. The third important part though looks at the kind of a contact between the two, the means and the intensity of a communication and the mechanisms for finding out needs and solutions, the ways of informing about the changes and requirements. The ways in which the minority could access the public services or influence their distribution. 

Statistical data
In research regarding other national or ethnic minority the use of statictics can be useful. Nevertherless the data about Roma minority are usually missing. Those that are can offer some clue (e.g. number of those who do state themselves to be of Roma origin in the census) but the real pictue of the access of Roma to the services has to be looked for elsewhere. Inofficial estimates however approximate may very well sharpen the picture (as the prison director saying that from all the women in the prison, about 50-60 % are Roma).

The statistics can be used to offer a picture of the general situation in the town. Besides the rate of the unemployment, there can be other information to create the picture like:
•	the total number of unemployed people (2.891, from that 747 with only basic education)
•	the number of employers (31.241, from that 27.309 subjects with a license and 3.932 organizations, from organizations 475 that employe more than 25 people)
•	biggest employers (Aliachem - 6.050 people, next is Hospital Pardubice - 1.512)
•	schooling (34 kindergardens - filled from 88,9 %, 20 basic school – filled from 82,9 %, 20 secondary schoold – filled from 74,05 %)
•	the income from the taxes to the town (881 340 thousand CZK) 
•	the condition of the housing (approx. 2,42 living in a houshold, about 1.195 flats are lacking, the town owns 30,6 % of the flats, 91,2% of the municipal flats are of the first (out of 4 categories)

Intention
There is another way of learning about the town and its approach to the minorities besides the pure numbers. The intention of the municipality and its expression can be a symbolic and a factual indicator of:
•	the awareness
•	the level of understanding 
•	the commitment
of the town towards the creation of the conditions in the town, favorable to the cultural and ethnic plurality.

Pardubice showed its intention for example in the „Public declaration of the will of the town to make further active steps towards creating an environment favourable for a peaceful coexistence of its citizens in the town of Pardubice.“ (Accepted the 27th of June 2000 by the City representatives).

Representation
The key for the access to the public services lies in a possibility of an active participation at the decision making process. Although there is no official registration of possible Roma origin among those who request services, those who work within city committees (advisory bodies for the city council), are usually known and intentionally chosen as Roma representatives. 

There is no registration for example of the number of Roma asking for a flat and their probability of success in getting one, as all the forms receive a code that shoul secure an anonymous distribusion of the flats. Nevertherless during the time one or two Roma participating at the „housing commitee“ became indispensable.  

•	The town is not employing any Roma at the moment, though one (already trained) should start working very soon as a social streetworker. Next year there should be an Equal Opportunity Politics excepted in the town.
•	There is one person working at the municipality specially „as a person for ethnic and national minorities“ 
•	There is one Roma constable working for the town police (total about 90 people) and wishes to employe some more.
•	At the housing and accomodation comitees there are 2 and 1 Roma participating.  
•	The „Committee for solving the Roma question“ is one of the longes running commitees in the town. There are 6 Roma out of 18 members.

Active support 
There are several mostly cultural and social organizations that the town supports and that create a liaison between the town and its minority citizens. 

Pardubice municipality for example:
•	finances running of  the Asylum house for women with children, where about 1/3 are Roma women 
•	supports an NGO Klub hura khamarad (offering leasure activities to the youth of both Roma and non-Roma, providing an accomodation and social services to those who left orphanages)
•	the town itself runs Roma Centre and Social Club for Roma children and youth where is an active football club with many trophies and where several Roma music and dance groups rehearse
The town support projects organizations and projects for improvement of Roma life in 2000 by approximatelly 345.000 CZK, which is about 3,2 % of the total municipal budget.

Main issues and ways of dealing with them 

Important issues for the Roma community in Pardubice can be devided into subsequent categories:

1)	Employment 
The City as an employer itself and as an example to the rest of the town can influence the general unemployment of Roma. For the next year the City Hall plans to adopt an Equal Opportunities Programme. In the present the employees participated at the creation of an ethical codex that should be a preliminary part of it. At the present, there is no Roma employed by the City Council (270 employees). 

2)	Housing
In the oppinion of both Roma and non-Roma the biggest problems in the mutual coexistence  concern the housing. The municipality influences the urban planning, decision making in individual cases, finances and decides about those who will get a municipal accomodation. 

Although there is no official way of gaining a statistical information, there are many Roma applicants for municipal flats. In estimate, compared to the majority, the ratio of the number of the applicants for the municipal flat to the total Roma population is higher. Many Roma families live crowded in a flat, with several children, sometimes more generations together. Another reason is a return of families from emmigration, after they gave away their previous flats. The source also draw into an attention their much higher depandability when caming with their request to the municipality. 

There is a housing and accomodation committee (advisory body to the City Council), with two resp. one Roma participants. The housing committee overlooks the problems that may arrise at appointing the houses to the applicants and should ensure that no discrimination takes place. Similair role has an accomodation committee that takes care of the processes of offering the rooms in the municipal accomodation.

The process of offering the flats and rooms to respective applicants belongs to the housing department of the Town hall. It is supposedly unbiased and as a result it should provide the housing regardless of the origin of the person or the family. The result of such practise should be than evenly spread out accomodation to the majority and minorities, without concentrated settlement of Roma to only some locations.

This intention though does not completely correspond with the reality. The process of decision making of the housing department is not transparent. The manager of the department for example said to the source, that „she has to be careful, where she will place those Roma… so that people (majority residents) do not come later and do not argue.“ 

After one location created in the past, there is resently a new one being created, where Roma families are placed with such a frequency that it can not be only by random. The problems caused by this movement („inhabitants, mostly Roma, are destroying the municipal property“) brought an attention to the issue. At the same time other Roma applicants are refusing to be moved there.  

Similair situation happened in the past, where families that do not get along well (Olachian and Rumunger) were moved to live together into one house. All were socially poor and after the moving in, all got even worse. Final solution at that time was building of a police station at the ground floor. 

Upon closer look at the system, there is in fact nobody really checking the way of offering the flats. There is a transparency of the list of the applicants with their points and likelihood of getting a flat. What is not clear is which flats are free and who will be offered which of the houses. The housing commitee only overlooks the plan of the proposal. Although there is no category on the form, where the ethnicity would be stated, it is nevertherless possible to recognize who is Roma and is not and Housing committee for example could be able to stop concentrated moving of the Roma residents to only one location. 

There is a new mostly Roma organization called Romstav. Its purporse is to be a partner to the town for building a cheep housing for Roma and non-Roma families, that would live together in a proportion half and half. The organization and the supportive politicians and municipal workers already did a lot of work. One of the difficulties in succeeding is a refusal with an open racist excuses of those who could locally decide about location for building these houses. Nevertherless for many Roma this is (not confirmed though) the only chance for having their own flat in Pardubice. They hope that the special regulation concerning the condition for receiving the flat will be avoided in this project. 

Many Roma families that waited (sometimes 15 years) for a flat, got almost to the point of receiving it, with only last paper needed:  extract of the crime register. Those who do not have a „clean crime register“, have no further chance. Thus, they are punished a second time, and with them, their families. Besides, it is an institutional discrimination, as (according to the Regulation 43/2000 EC, that is yet to be accepted into the Czech legislation), it is a decision adopted by an institution and its result falls down on the heads of one group more than to another… 

With this issue is connected another aspect, when some women were advised by the housing department employees to divorce, so that their likelihood of getting a flat and securing a better living conditions for their children, increases. Some of them used that possibility. 
3)	Policing and discrimination
There are two main kinds of the policing – state and town. The town police is responsible to the municipality who establishes it but has smaller power than the state one. 

•	The town police responsibilities are not very well defined by the state law and there is a continual struggle to improve this situation from the town police directors. 
•	Roma experience refused access to pubs, disco, swimming pool, they are promised employment over the phone, cancelled when met, they are a subject of frequent controls on the street by police etc. The only way to use in the present for fighting this discrimination, is a Czech Business Inspection, that did not proof any of the reported incidents in Pardubice yet. Otherwise there is no institution on the local level that would be able to také care of someone who claims to be a victim of discrimination. 
•	The town police participated in diversity and communication training and are interested in more of a it in the future.

4)	Education
The town can influence the situation in the education only indirectly as their main responsibility in the present is connected with the taking care for the school buildings.

•	preparatory classes – There were 2 preparatory classes run by the Special school (for children before entering to the basic school, helping to accomodate to new style, improve language and other skills). In the present there is not enough children for those classes and so no there is a threat that one of those will be cancelled. There were two Roma pedagogic assistents who are now facing a probable end of their work.
•	for those children who leave the preparatory classes and continue into the basic school, there are no Roma assistents at schools that would be able to help them

5)	Culture/leisure time/ sports
Roma Centre and Social Club for Roma youth –  the Centre and Social Club are led by municipality employees, none of whom is a Roma. 
The Centre which exists for young children is closed on weekends and holidays as there is no money to have it open on other days as well. 

6)	General communication
The person working at Municipality for Ethnic minorities is in Pardubice a key person for good and stable relations between the town and minorities, esp. Roma. It is not only the fact such position exists but rather the skills and dedication of the person working there that brings long term positive results.

The meetings of the Pardubice City Council are announced and open for the public. This is seldom used though, according to the sorce.

Roma Centre is used as an informal but very effective tool for communication (through the children, mothers). 

There is Roma City Council – not registered organization, intending to be the platform for the representatives of the main Roma families in Pardubice (about 6 active members). 

Municipal commitee for solving Roma question – the key people (Roma and non-Roma) have a place to meet, decide, and offer their recommendations to the City council. After two years of no involvement of a City councellor, there is now an active politician working as a member of the commitee. 

Summary and Conclusion 

The situation in Pardubice is rather specific as the level of unemployment is low, minority is small in number, mostly for a long time settled, and disperced, with no stronger organization that would represent them. Compared to some other towns in the Czech republic the problems that the Roma community faces in Pardubice are not so hopeless. 

Because of the fact that the town does not have to deal with really critical situation in the present – it is able to look more ahead and work on improving conditions. Municipality is focusing also on creation of systematic changes that would alow fluid echange of information and secure a space for quick reaction to serious signals. 

The town, municipality, life of its citizens, including minority, all the relationships between the members of the community, between state and local government, form a very open and dynamic system that is quite unpredictable. What we know is that various communities may have different needs and different cirumstances can create a tension and even a barier. At the end, the flow can stop completely and the parts of the system may become secluded and the harder the block, the stronger shift is needed to de-block it.

To avoid any crisis in the town, members of the community should be not left isolated or not listened to. The premise is that more communication and more chanels to treck down any changes in the public satisfaction, the better. One of the things to look at is letting the signals get to those who are wiling and able to do anything about it, plus are able to understand, to „decode“ the message. Together with concrete problems, the climate in town is influenced by mechanisms there are to learn about the problems and an ability and willingness to do something effective about it. 

One of the methods for analysing the town thus might be looking at the mechanisms there are to: 
1)	get the information Information from the community and to the community about changes and news
2)	search for the solution together What are the ways for ensuring minority groups participation at the decision making. 
3)	support the development of the community Understanding that it is a strong community, not a week one, who can make a good partner. 

Sources used
a)	Interviews and participation at various meetings with – Roma, politicians, municipality employees (social, housing, urban planning departments), Town police, NGOs, Pardubcie district employees (Roma advisor), educators (including Roma pedagogic assistents)
b)	Interviews with other organizations (work office, foreign police director and other policemen, members of the Vietnamees community, Roma advisor)
c)	Internet pages – The Law on the Municipalies (2000), pages of Pardubice municipality
d)	„Profile of the town“ from December 2000 – source for a Committee for a strategic planning of the town.

Alice Ondruchová, Praha, November 2001

Appendix 
PRELIMINARY RESULTS FROM THE CENSUS 2001

The census took place in the whole of Czech republic, based on the law 158/1999 Sb. The crucial moment was a midnight from the February the 28th to the March the 1st 2001.

| Town of Pardubice | Pardubice district | Pardubice region | Czech republic
Number of municipalities | 1 | 115 | 453 | 6 258
Citizenship in total: | 91 292 | 162 008 | 510 079 | 10 292 933

Citizenship:
- permanent
- longterm

90 907
385

161 394
614

508 125
1 954

10 223 079
69 854

Nationality:
-Czech
- Moravien
- Silesian
- Slovak
- German
- Polish
- Roma
- other and not identified

86 859
219
7
1 374
58
88
160
2 527

155 436
307
16
2 089
101
133
239
3 687

485 699
2 920
59
5 571
593
637
519
14 081

9 270 615
373 294
11 248
183 749
38 321
50 971
11 716
353 019

The 19th of July, 2001 in Pardubice, processed by the Czech statistical office, Regional representation Pardubice. Information provided Alena Kosková.