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  2. Census 2020 - Public Comments

Do you want a 'Sikh' category?

Urge the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to Have a 'Sikh' Category on the 2020 Census 

The federal White House Office of Management and Budget is asking for public comments on potential revisions to its 1997 standards for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data. All federal agencies must follow these standards.

This is extremely late notice, but the last day to submit public commentary is on Sunday, April 30, 2017.

On Monday, April 24th, two members of the Jakara Movement - Naindeep Singh of Fresno (Executive Director) and Jasjit Singh of Fresno met with Nicholas A. Jones, Director of Race & Ethnic Research and Outreach Population Division at the US Census Bureau.  Director Jones mentioned that there is consideration to have a separate code for 'Sikh' under the 'Asian Indian' or 'Other Asian' category.  While religion cannot be a category, there is some consideration being made for this 'ethnic' category.  It is being considered for a beta release in the 2018 American Community Survey and based on that will be evaluated for inclusion into the 2020 Census.

We know there has been intermittent conversations within the Sikh-American community led by other Sikh organizations.  Our point is not to lead this initiative, but rather to provide an opportunity for the Sikh community to express itself during this closing public commentary period.  We have drafted an email template.  We encourage you to use it and spread widely.

You have until April 30 to tell OMB that “I want to be counted as a Sikh in the U.S. Census in 2020!"

The Census is critical as government resources, funding, translation services from education, voting, to public health depend on the results of their counting.  Instead of the current Sikh practice of guessing numbers, having a real count would be far more useful.  At present for the Sikh community, the Census is the only way to do this.

TAKE ACTION! Tell the Office of Management and Budget why detailed data about specific Asian groups - specifically the 'Sikh' category - is important to you and your community. Please feel free to add your own personal comments in the letter below.