LAHORE - Activists raised voice for inclusion of gypsies in the Punjab Human Rights Policy 2018 at a seminar here on Friday.

A big number of gypsies lives along the bank of River Ravi. These people live in most deplorable conditions and usually do not have even national identity cards. Neither do they receive any monthly stipend from city district or provincial government.  Nazir Ahmed Ghazi from the Grassroots Organization for Development of Human Beings said the Punjab Human Rights Policy should also focus on gypsies, who are the most vulnerable community having no rights.  On the occasion, the ministry promulgated and approved country’s first provincial human rights policy prepared in the light of the National Action Plan on human rights.

Minister for Human Rights and Minority Affairs Tahir Khalil Sandhu acknowledged the recommendations and said that policy guidelines would be framed on all such communities.

The minister said that Punjab was the first province to have its human rights policy, which provides a strategic direction for promotion, protection and implementation of human rights in the province. Khalil said the government approved the Punjab Sikh Marriage Act that was unique in its own way.