Jai Bhim Network

The bill Nr. 3503 “On religious freedom and the legal status of churches and religious communities” before the Hungarian Parliament since 10th of June 2011, deprives JaiBhim Network of its religious status.

Members of the Network seek out isolated villages in order to pray, teach and effect lifestyle changes. The members‘teaching is based on the 2500 year old precept of the Enlightened One: „I take responsibility for my own fate.“ Roma children who have grown up in deepest poverty go to university, illiterates learn to read and write, drunk parents become sober with the help of members of the Network. Buddhist Roma take up the fight against everyday scourges of village life such as electricity theft and truancy, and collect the accumulated rubbish around their homes and communities. The JaiBhim Network cooperates with the Maltese Charity Service, the Ecumenical Education Centre, the Kecskemét Piarists, the Quakers, the I Love Hungary Club, Kaldor College, the Calvinist Alpha College in the Netherlands, the European Buddhist Union as well as the largest group of socially disadvantaged people in the world, the Indian Dalits. Those familiar with Network member’s work understand its necessity.

Today, Hungary’s villages are rife with severe ethnic conflict. Aggressive hate groups and neo-nazi organisations terrorize whole villages such as Gyöngyöspata, Olaszliszka and Tatárszentgyörgy. Luckily, the JaiBhim Network has been able to demonstrate a faithful solution to this nihilist hopelessness through its education and social programme - Dr. Ambedkar School - in several communities including Sajókaza, Alsózsolca, Hegymeg, Ózd, Mágocs, Baksa, Hidas and Alsószentmárton. Our society cannot afford to turn its back on such successful initiatives!

The proposed law endangers the survival of what is probably Hungary’s largest educational institution for Roma children and youngsters - Dr. Ambedkar School - by depriving it of half its budget. Between 2007 and 2011 the Hungarian state provided the same support for this school as it did for other religious schools around the country. Till now, the state has devoted the same resources to the education of a student from a Roma slum as to the students of well known Christian schools in Debrecen, Pannonhalma and Budapest. Will Roma students now be worth just half as much as the children of the elite?

In section 8.§ (2) the proposed law states: The state will cooperate with religious institutions to achieve social goals.

Zoltán Balog, Secretary of State for Social Inclusion recently said: There are many fine examples of integration initiatives in this country, Sajókaza is one. The aim of his visit was to get an idea of how the institution works in its everyday life. He mentioned the outstanding practice of educating children and their parents together. He highlighted the fact that in the world of the Hungarian Romas it is not unusual to meet 35-year-old grandmothers ; Dr. Ambedkar School gives them a second chance. After raising their children they are encouraged to study and acquire a trade. It is doubly motivating when they are given the opportunity to study alongside their children, as mentioned by Mr. Balog. He added that it was important that several generations were able to work together to achieve these goals, and that women were given, and assumed, important roles.

We call on the esteemed Majority Leader to help Roma youngsters following in the footsteps of the Indian Dalits to practice their religious rights.

Download, print, sign, sent: H-3720 Sajókaza, Rákóczi F. u. 29. (Click here!)

• Magyar verzió (Hungarian version)