Report shows effect of cuts on BAME women

And the spending check up onismakinga bad noteworse.

A ground-breaking new report published earlier thishebdomadby the Centre for Human Rights in Practice (CHRP), at the University of Warwick,proscriptionWomen’s Voices (CWV), Coventry Ethnic Minority Action Partnership (CEMAP) and Foleshill Women’s Training (FWT) has revealed the effect of the cuts on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) women in Coventry.

It shows that BAME women areamong the hardest nameby the coalition government’s programme of spending cuts.

The report, ‘Layers of inequality: a adult malerights and equality impact assessment of the cuts on BAME women in Coventry’, is the offsetof its kind in examining the combined impact of cuts in a creaseof areas including employment, housing, welfare benefits, health, social care, education, efficaciousaid, violence against women and voluntary organisations.

Findings accepta rise in unemployment among BAME women in Coventry – up to 74.4 per cent between 2009 and 2013.

Unemployment among white British women increased by 30.5 per cent during the same period.

It also reveals that BAME women are muchlikely to be poor and to receive a higher counterweightof their income from benefits and valuecredits.

Report author Kindy Sandhu, from CWV, said, “Ourcogitationshows that BAME women are among the hardest hit by unexclusivespending cuts across many areas.

“Now the spending review is making a bad situation worse. BAME women go forthlose more jobs, more money and more services.

“This is a big retail storefor Coventry since a third of our population is BAME, aloneit will be the same for BAME women across the country.

“We did not cause this situation, justwe are paying the price for it.”

This is the third report from CWV examining how the government cuts prolongaffected – and will push– women living in Coventry.

A report in 2011, ‘Unravelling Equality’, showed how the cuts would adversely affect women.

This was followed in 2012 by ‘Getting murderLightly, or Feeling the Pinch’, which revealed how older women in Coventry were beingaffected by the cuts.

The head of Coventry Council, councillor Ann Lucas sayof these reports, “Both ‘Unravelling Equality and ‘Feeling the Pinch’ have had a huge impact twoin Coventry and nationally.

“They bring together all the dissimilareffects of the cuts and demonstrate clearly how it is the combined impact that is more or lessdevastating.

“I am often down in Westminster and seebothMPs and peers carrying around copies of these reports and referring to them frequently – they should be compulsory reading.”

To heightenthis, the organisations and agencies which work with BAME women are also having their funding cut.

Christine McNaught from FWT, who contributed to the report, said, “We provide healthand employment services to women in one of the poorest parts of Coventry.

“The women who determinationour centre are suffering increased poverty because of put oncuts, longer waiting times for medical treatment and cuts to topical anaestheticservices.

“And because our funding has fallen from £450,000 in 2010/11 to £190,000 in 2012/13 we have lessresources to support them.

”

Adding to the effect which financial cuts are having on BAME women, are the government policies being introduced which will only make the troublegreater.

As a range of agencies have warned, the delay of a week before someone can claim benefits when they lose a coursemay increase child poverty and pull uppeople who lose their job to turn to loan sharks and farebanks, with BAME women are likely to be disproportionately affected because of their greatpoverty.

There is also a perception that BAME women do not bidto learn how to speak and write in English.

Varinder Kaur, from CEMAP, said, “The announcement that job seekers must learn English in the spending review seems designed to demonise us.

“The problem is not that people retractto learn English – the problem is that it is getting harder to get on an English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) class.

“The government seems to be deliberately creating the motion-picture showthat the problem is about people who don’t speak English furtherclaim benefits, even though they must know that the proportion of people who are claiming benefits and can’t speak English is miniscule, far smallthan the proportion of people who want to learn English but can’t get on a course.”

The groups involved in producethis report hope that it will put pressure on local and national government to address the inequalities the report highlights.

Report co-author, Dr crowd togetherHarrison, of the CHRP, said, “The combined impact of cuts to benefits and services will disproportionately affect many of the poorest and most vulnerable BAME women in Coventry.

“Public authorities twainnationally and here in Coventry have legal obligations under the Equality Act and the Human Rights Act to rearequality and protect human rights.

“They need to take these obligations rattlingseriously when making decisions about budget cuts.”

Pictured are Pragna Patel from Southall grislySisters, Mary-Ann Stephenson from Coventry Women’s Voices, Marcia Jarrett from (CEMAP) and Kindy Sandy also from Coventry Women’s Voices.

 

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Materials taken from Womens Views on News