On Friday 4th September, the Mayor of London unveiled a series of videos delivering health guidance on Covid-19 in Urdu, Indian Punjabi, Bengali and Hindi.
Created and catered to reach the South Asian communities in London, Sadiq Khan in these clips emphasises the need for more translated health advice across the country projecting the significance of social distancing, face coverings and regular handwashing.
South Asian across the UK have been disproportionately impacted by coronavirus and are highly likely to be employed as key workers in frontline health and service industry roles.
Lockdown restrictions have meant major cultural and religious events including Vaisakhi, Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha as well as India and Pakistan’s respective independence days have not been celebrated as they usually would, through communal gatherings. This has meant festivities have largely taken place within households or have inspired families, faith communities and places of worship to move celebrations online.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan said, “From key workers on the frontline to families staying home, London’s South Asian communities have made extraordinary sacrifices to help stop the spread of this virus. A person’s ethnicity should never mean the difference between life and death and Ministers must do more to ensure reliable guidance in accessible formats is available to all.”
He has previously campaigned for ethnicity data to be added to death certificates, urging the Equality and Human Rights Commission to undertake a full inquiry and backing calls on the Prime Minister for an independent public inquiry into BAME deaths. He has also provided financial support to Doctors of the World to ensure crucial coronavirus guidance could be made available in more than 60 languages and creating a toolkit with resources in a further 11 languages including Bengali and Gujarati. And has helped launch the London Community Response which has provided emergency funding to several organisations in the capital’s South Asian community including Hounslow Multicultural Centre and Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre. Of the £23million allocated by the fund so far, 44% has gone to BAME led organisations.
Dr Sarah N Ali, South Asian Health Foundation (SAHF) trustee and Consultant in Diabetes and Endocrinology, said, “SAHF has been active for two decades working to improve health inequalities in the British South Asian community based on robust scientific research and evidence-based medicine.”
Benaifer Bandhari, CEO - Hopscotch Asian Women’s Centre, said, “At Hopscotch we have worked on accurate information from the beginning of enforced isolation - particularly for our more vulnerable service users facing poverty, domestic abuse and loneliness. With our colleagues at Camden we have made videos in community languages throughout this period but having London-wide videos to share is fantastic and will mean a lot to our service users and staff.”
