US Sikhs to be recognised as separate ethnic group in census

Sikhs in the USA will be recognised as a separate ethnic group in the United States 2020 Census.

The news was announced by Sikh humanitarian and legal advocacy charity United Sikhs, who claimed the move to have a separate tick-box for Sikhs will help ensure an accurate count of Sikhs in the United States and will help in tracking and measuring hate crimes against the Sikh community.

HISTORIC VICTORY: SIKHS TO BE COUNTED AS A SEPARATE ETHNIC GROUP IN USA CENSUS 2020

Inclusion of Sikh Americans in the Decennial United States Census is a result of decades of advocacy.
For more details of the same, Click: https://t.co/w43MyRd2E4 https://t.co/OgBA3L7cZI

— UNITED SIKHS (@unitedsikhs) January 16, 2020

“A separate code recognises the unique identity of Sikhs and gives us an opportunity to have an accurate count of Sikhs in the United States to better serve the community’s needs,” said US census deputy director Ron Jarmin.

US charity Sikh Coalition supported the decision. Satjeet Kaur, executive director of Sikh Coalition, explained that Sikhs have traditionally been a “hard-to-count” population in the United States.

“Our community is important, and we want to ensure that Sikh families are counted appropriately and have the right resources, wherever they are in our country,” she added.

However, the move has received a mixed response from the Sikh community, with some arguing that there was a lack of consultation in the Sikh community before reaching the decision.

Blogger American Turban claimed that there has been “a vacuum of info made public”, and questioned the methodology behind the decision.

Additional questions:
1. Why was there no public consultation on this change? Who are the parties that participated in this change?
2. From what categories will Sikhs be excluded if they are reporting as "Sikh"?
3. Who is responsible for education and implementation around this?

— American Turban (@americanturban) January 16, 2020

“Why was there no public consultation on this change? Who are the parties that participated in this change?” he asked, adding: “Sikhs shouldn’t get caught up in claims of the “historic” nature of the change – the Titanic was also historic before it made even bigger history.”

Broadcaster and Sikh academic Gurnam Singh said that “to label Sikhs as an ‘ethnic group’ is not without its problems… going down that path could lead to unintended consequences”.

“One of the main problems is the complexities of translating the idea of Sikhs as a ‘quom’ or ‘dharam’ into what are essentially European concepts of ‘ethnicity’ and ‘religion’.” He added that it may be more appropriate to include a category for Panjabi ethnicity, rather than a Sikh one.

Many in favour of a separate Sikh ethnicity tick-box have claimed that the faith is about breaking barriers, justifying people of different races and nationalities being able to claim the same ethnicity.

Sikhs have a history of shaking and redefining the system for its flaws. With the Census and Ethnic tick box we have that opportunity again.

— Mankamal Singh (@MankamalSingh) July 28, 2018

After originally being rejected in December 2019, lobbying efforts by UK-based Sikh groups (mainly pushed by the Sikh Federation UK) for Sikhs to be recognised as a separate ethnic group in the next British census are ongoing, with the case set to be taken to the court of appeal.