Birmingham 2022 'not doing enough to engage with diverse communities'

Birmingham 2022 has not done enough to engage with diverse communities, a Sikh temple leader has claimed.

Jatinder Singh, president of Guru Nanak Gurdwara, said requests to become involved with the Commonwealth Games had been ignored.

Diversity forums have been set up, but it was difficult to reach everyone, Donna Fraser, Head of Inclusion and Engagement for Birmingham 2022, said.

She said the games would work harder to involve more people.

The 2022 Commonwealth Games are being held in and around Birmingham with the opening ceremony taking place on 28 July.

The Guru Nanak Gurdwara is one mile from Sandwell Aquatics Centre, a facility being built especially for the games.

"We want to be welcoming people, welcoming people to understand our faith, our culture, our community, and we've just been repeatedly ignored," Mr Singh said.

He said he appreciated the difficulties organisers have faced, such as delays caused by the pandemic, but added: "When communities themselves are reaching out to you and giving you a platform to promote the games from, to engage with communities, providing you with those platforms and then you're still ignoring them, something doesn't seem right there."

Concerns about inclusion were also raised in an open letter by community groups including the Sandwell and Birmingham Mela, a South Asian cultural festival.

Mela spokesperson Haj Singh said: "We were always the one who were knocking on their door, asking for meetings."

He said while there were still opportunities to put things right, the Mela organisers were disappointed at the lack of Punjabi content in the Cultural Festival, organised by Birmingham 2022.

The letter said the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) forums had been introduced by games organisers too late to influence planning for the games and called for guarantees of funding for diverse communities.

"Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities seem to have been sidestepped and major contributors to this local culture and business innovation ignored", the letter continued.

Ms Fraser said the coronavirus pandemic, a shortage of time and the need to focus on the games themselves had all caused difficulties.

"It is difficult to touch every single person in the entire West Midlands," she said.

She emphasised there had been a number of roadshows, community events and meetings to involve diverse communities and added organisers had reached out to "key figures" in the local area and invited them to join the EDI forums and faith forums.

She said they had been joined by "scores of representatives", including those from the Sikh community.

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