Gypsy Mela: ‘NADRA will facilitate registration of nomads’

The festival aims to highlight gypsy art and culture.

LAHORE:

“Gypsy Mela’s theme this year is ‘Identity is Our Right’. A NADRA mobile unit has been arranged to facilitate the gypsies’ registration,” said GODH executive director Nazir Ahmed Ghazi. He was speaking at a press conference on Monday ahead of Gypsy Mela.

Ghazi said folk performers from across the country would be present, including Krishan Lal Bheel from Cholistan, Jawad Ahmed, Sain Iqbal Group, Yousaf Punjabi and Tanveer Shah. He said the objective of the event was to highlight the gypsy community’s art and culture, and raise awareness regarding the difficulties they faced and their identity issues.

Ghazi said GODH, a grass-roots human development organisation, was holding the festival on March 4 and 5, with support from the Children Library Complex (CLC) and the Social Welfare Department.

Social Welfare District Officer Faiz Naeem Warraich said “We are working for the marginalised, including the gypsies.

This year we are focusing on registering them, which is their right as citizens of Pakistan. CLC Project Director Kausar Jabeen spoke about her organisation’s outreach programme, which aimed at improving the lives of gypsies and other nomadic communities.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4^th, 2014.