Almost all able-bodied Transcarpathian Roma are unemployed

There are 14,000 of what we call Gypsies in Transcarpathian oblast today. Yet, they prefer to call themselves and expect others to address them as Roma. Incidentally, their number in the region has risen by 2000 since the 1989 census. The present-day Rom actively defends his rights and interests via fifteen regional ethno-cultural associations as well as on the pages of the national newspaper Romane Yag published in Uzhhorod.

A considerable number of Transcarpathian Roma live in 120 camps on the outskirts of the oblast’s cities and villages. There are six Roma camps in Perechyn district alone. Something absurd happened here during the latest census: only eight individuals called themselves Roma, while the oblast’s education department said there were 449 Roma pupils in Perechyn district.

A camp on the outskirts of the village Poroshkov. Gypsies and Vlachs have been living here together for a very long time. The Vlachs (Historians consider the Vlachs to be the descendants of the Roman population of Dacia and ancestors of modern Romanians — Ed.) are still in doubt over whether they originated from the Romanians or the Gypsies. Both the Gypsies and the Vlachs have large families. In olden times, residents of this camp manufactured various wooden items for shepherds. Although this craft has been forgotten, master Vasyl Baloh is doing his best to revive it. There is a small woodwork shop in his house. Assisted by his married sons, he makes windows and doors for new houses. Mr. Baloh is now decorating the Roma cultural center where people come to sing, dance, socialize, and settle all kinds of matters. The master is certain that entrepreneurs would only make a profit if they invested in several woodworking shops or gang saws and ensured an uninterrupted supply of timber for the latter.

Incidentally, only twelve young people of the Poroshkova camp are employed in Perechyn, the district center. Most are unemployed. In Soviet times, individuals as well as whole families would go to Kazakhstan for seasonal employment. Now they do not look for a job even in southern or eastern Ukraine: they were more than once cheated there by unscrupulous employers.

The campers live modestly, their houses are clean and neat, their children well cared for. All the six Perechyn camps are under constant supervision of Hnat Tyrpak, district council member, leader of the district branch of Romane Yag, a cultural and public outreach organization. He successfully persuaded the authorities to allot at least small land plots to the Roma.

At a camp in the village of Zaricheve local resident Ivan Horvat has long been eager to open a smithy — even with financial support of some entrepreneur. He is the only musician here, playing the accordion. The commune liked merrymaking until recently. Now, after embracing the Evangelical faith, most lead a more serious way of life. They often get together at a certain house to pray or conduct a meeting. Ivan Horvat now accompanies liturgical songs.

There are almost 5,000 Roma school-age children in Transcarpathia today. Yet, only a third of them regularly go to school. Only 15% of the oblast’s Roma have a secondary education. District Council Deputy Hnat Tyrpak, assisted by Petro Hrytsyk, chairman of he Perechyn District Administration, and the village authorities, are now lobbying the opening of a Sunday school in the Poroshkova camp. Hundreds of boys and girls do not attend secondary schools at all because their parents say they have no decent clothes to wear. Meanwhile, local functionaries claim the reason is different: Roma mothers force their children to beg together with themselves, and when an attempt is made to take the children to a boarding school, the mothers will give their eyeteeth to hold them back: they are afraid of losing child-care benefits.

Transcarpathia is today implementing the Roma Population program valid until 2006. For want of central funding, each district and city has to scrape the bottom of the barrel. Twenty young Roma are students at Uzhhorod’s colleges (many are financed by the International Renaissance Foundation, which has a special program for the Roma — Ed.). Over 500,000 hryvnias have been spent over the past year to renovate schools attended by the Gypsies. The latter can also go to elementary school at the villages of Vyshkove and Dombok, as well as a special class in the district center of Mizhhirya.

Thanks to assistance from the Carpathian Foundation, the Congress of Transcarpathian Roma, and the Center of Ethnic Minorities Culture, the six gypsy camps of Uzhhorod district will have local self-government bodies, such as street committees and communes. According to culture center director Yosyp Solomon, these bodies will take care of some fields of the Roma population’s life, namely, education, culture, and household utilities. The committees will have their own seals and funds. A group of experts has studied the social and demographic situation in these six camps located at Chop, Serednie, Velyka Dobrona, Rativtsi, Ruski Komaryntsi, and Kontsiv. A total 2,206 people reside there. 65% (342) of the families are large ones, while 43.5% live with only one parent. The overwhelming majority (76.8%) of couples live in common-law marriage. Almost all working-age Roma remain unemployed. Seasonal work and begging are the only sources of income for many. According to Uzhhorod’s District Department of Employment and Social Security, none of the families in the six Roma settlements are formally entitled to subsidies. Ninety Roma families have no houses and more than 300 no homestead land plots of their own; only 36 families have received their share of former collective farm lands. All 526 families account for eighteen automobiles, thirteen motorcycles, 88 horses, 35 washing machines, 170 televisions, eleven ordinary, and 72 mobile phones. Five settlements are represented in the village councils. Incidentally, some village council chairpersons opposed establishing self-government bodies in the Roma camps. Traditional Gypsy barons were not exactly overjoyed with this innovation either, for tradition maintains that they should make decisions without relying on public opinion.

In spite of this, the self-government bodies are to be officially organized in the six camps by the end of May. This experience will be extended to all the Roma communities of Transcarpathia. The innovation will perhaps stir up interest in neighboring Slovakia, where unsolved problems have recently triggered widespread gypsy unrest and looting.