I was a small child when I arrived in Bradford, West Yorkshire from Punjab, India in the early 1960s. I came with my mother to join my father who like many other Indian men from Punjab, came to England for improve their financial and educational prospects.

Whilst my parents worked hard to improve their prospects, I joined the local school and this was an enormous culture change for me as well as coping with the language barriers. 

In the 1960s, life in schools in Bradford was very difficult for an Indian girl. I was one of the very few children in school who was from an Indian heritage. Racism was commonplace in the playground and the classroom with children focussing on differences to bully and make life generally miserable for the minority ethnic children. The teachers completely ignored the conflict and on reflection as an adult I realise the teachers were probably not trained and equipped to deal with these issues.

Initially this made a huge impact on my self-confidence however luckily for me, my father realised this and taught me the most important life lesson of facing up to my challenges and not to be afraid to fight my battles in a constructive way. This lesson has stayed with me throughout my life and I have often had to use it in various situations throughout my working career and in my voluntary commitments. 

My parents were very committed to education and always encouraged me to work hard at school. Even though my father worked very long hours, he always made time to help me with my schoolwork and never missed a parents evening.

My father introduced me to community work and politics very early on in my childhood. He was involved with various minority ethnic, race and equality organisations and worked hard to promote equality and harmony in communities.  These activities framed my childhood, thinking and views and as a result I became involved in equality issues and tackling racism with a range of community groups and individuals.

Education was a key priority for my parents and their ideology was that attaining good qualifications was single the most important factor to achieving success, integration, equality and recognition in this country. I was encouraged to study, and higher education was my passport to securing local government employment with good prospects for promotions in 1980.

I have undertaken a range of different roles in the areas of policy, performance, organisational development, quality assurance and service management. In all my local government roles, I worked hard to maintain focus on engagement with diverse communities, equality and community harmony and this approach was always integral to the way I delivered my services. Working in local government enabled me to work towards making positive differences to lives of minority ethnic communities.

The 1980s and 1990s were exciting and challenging for work on racism and equality. Several initiatives were developed in the public, community and voluntary sectors. I was actively involved in developing projects both within public and voluntary sectors and the community itself.

I established a wide range of initiatives on a voluntary basis, promoting equality in all diverse communities with a focus on minority ethnic women, young people and children as well as supporting initiatives targeting minority ethnic businesses.

My father’s key priority was to establish himself and his family successfully in this country. He worked hard and established his own very successful business as an Insurance Broker.  He inspired me to work hard in my education and once in employment to work hard and rise to senior management levels within local government.

I completed my degree and MBA whist working in local government. Most of my evenings were given up to either support my father’s business or accompany him to community and voluntary sector meetings focussed on tackling racism a promoting equality.

At the same time my two children, son and daughter were both growing up in a similar environment to which I grew up in, one of education, business, community and voluntary work. They both spent school holidays helping my father in his business and accompanying him to community and voluntary sector events and meetings as well studying hard at school.

Yorkshire, England was our adopted home and is the most wonderful place to live and work as well as raising a family. Yorkshire is a beautiful place full of warm-hearted people who are receptive to change and are welcoming to people of different minorities and ethnic backgrounds. It was a joy working with such people on agendas of change and equality and managing to make small positive differences to people and communities living with issues of inequality.

Coming to Surrey was never part of my plans, I was fully intent on continuing my career in local government in West Yorkshire. However, in early 2000 both my son and daughter came to London to study at University College London and then on completion of their degrees, started to work in London.

It was clear to me that they wouldn’t be returning to Yorkshire so with my parents blessing I started to look for jobs in London and surrounding areas.

In 2007 I arrived in Surrey to take up my post with Surrey County Council. After working in Surrey for a few months I realised that Surrey is a wonderful county to live in and Surrey County Council is a great organisation to work for. However, Surrey the place and the Surrey County Council have issues of equality and racism which need to be addressed.

Surrey is home to numerous minority ethnic communities and their community groups are doing fantastic work however these minority ethnic communities are small and dispersed in the county which reduces the impact they are able to make on influencing organisations to make the changes needed improve the quality of their lives. There was a need to bring these communities together to enable them to have a stronger voice. I worked with a few people in the council and the voluntary sector to develop a project called Bridging the Gap. This project was successful in obtaining Lottery funding and was developed by dedicated staff, community group members and trustees to the Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum we are all so proud of today.

Living and working in Surrey is wonderful and gives me new challenges of working in an area with very different cultural and ethnicity diversities. Some of the culture changes were challenging for me particularly given that agendas that were important to me were not always given priority in public and voluntary sector organisations. Through my work with Surrey County Council I tried to raise the profile for promoting equality and tackling racism both within the organisation and for the diverse communities living in Surrey 

From my perspective it’s an essential requirement for public sector organisations that their services are appropriate and relevant to the communities they serve and ensure that these communities have equal access to these services. It’s important that minority ethnic communities are empowered to voice the issues that they are facing and agreed solutions are found to address these issues and needs.

My view is that it’s equally important as an minority ethnic community individual with Indian heritage that minority ethnic communities and individuals also have a responsibility to ensure we integrate positively as empowered citizens in the communities, county and country we have adopted and made our home for ourselves and our families.

This ideology has always formed the basis for my roles in local government and as an individual living in England. Therefore, when I took early retirement from Surrey County Council, becoming involved with SMEF was a perfect way to involve myself with diverse communities as well as continuing my passion for promoting equality and empowering diverse communities to have their voices heard and their issues and needs addressed.

Most of my work – paid and voluntary has been focussed on helping people to be more empowered to enable them to influence people and organisations where decisions affecting their well-being are made and ensure they can be part of the change that is needed to make their lives and wellbeing more secure, stable and successful. 

I have been lucky; many people have supported me on my journey in my adopted country. My parents supported my education and career and then as I progressed in my local government career, my son and daughter, both of whom always took their studies seriously, never betrayed my trust in them even though they were left alone with grandparents as I attended yet another local government committee meeting or a community and voluntary group meetings.

I am very honoured to be part of Surrey Minority Ethnic Forum and it’s my privilege to be its Chair. SMEF is valuable organisation for Surrey and all its diverse communities. It provides a powerful platform to promote equity and voice the needs of minority ethnic communities. The need for an organisation like SMEF in Surrey will not diminish for the foreseeable future and we all need to support SMEF to grow and prosper to continue its good work to support minority ethnic communities.

I have made Surrey my home, its where my children and grandchildren are living, working and studying so I have a vested interest to ensure Surrey prospers. I see fantastic prospects for Surrey and its people. People and communities from all diverse heritages and minority communities can make this happen by working together to support each other and their young people and children.