BY JULIAN S DAS
KOLKATA: A census of Anglo-Indians under way in West Bengal will help the community keep track of the dwindling flock and, they hope, redress their problems.
The census, the first in 60 years, includes all those who are 16 years of age or older. It started mid-November and will continue until January 2011.
The census assumes significance as there are about 20,000 Eurasians in the state of which about 70 per cent are Catholics and the rest belonging to other Christian denominations, said Robyn Andrews, one of the two persons who initiated the ‘Anglo-Indian Count’.
Barry O’ Brien, an Anglo-Indian politician associated with the census, said it would help the community in areas such as education and housing.
This is my gift to the Anglo-Indian community before I relinquish office in May 2011, said O’Brien, who is the community representative in the state assembly.
He said the data would be available to any association serving the community in the state to streamline their services to specific areas of need.
The report of the census would also be handed over to the next government representative of the community so that the funds allocated for the community may be better utilized, he added.
He said that even the state government could use the data to reach out to the community.
Yolanda Beale, a 72-year-old Anglo-Indian woman, hopes that “something good will come out of the census which will unify the Anglo-Indians of the state.”
She said that most of the Anglo-Indians do not like to be identified with the Indians, and therefore migrate to either Australia or Canada.
Andrews, who has done her doctrinal studies on the community in the state, said there is a strong pull from the Anglo-Indian families settled in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom to invite their family members from the state.