On February 10, 2019 at the age of 71, the famous poet, writer and public figure of India Dev Bhardwaj died. With this, the Roma nation lost a top intellectual, activist and Roma fighter.

Dev Rai Bhardwaj was born on November 20, 1948 in Gurdaspur - Punjab, India.

He completed his primary education at his home village of Marar while attending higher education in Chandigarh, where he moved to 1966. He has written several books with short stories, plays and books for children, as well as translations of some of the world famous classics in Punjabi.

Otherwise, Dev Bhardway was a member of the writers of the world nations in Kazakhstan and the regional chief representative of the Writers' Union of the World Nation (Kazakhstan) for the states of Punjab and Haryana in India.

At the same time, he was an honorary member of the Sakhti Academy in Chandigarh, as well as the State Prize for Full Contribution to Literature in 2012

Association Initiative for unemployed intellectuals - INI from Vinica has started research on the educational inclusion of Roma children in the municipalities of Vinica and Kocani, as well as on the forms of labor exploitation, discrimination and various forms of violence against them.

Partner in the project implementation is the Roma association "Avena" from Kocani, and the research and analysis will be conducted in several target groups of citizens during this calendar year.

We want to get a true picture of the number of Roma families whose children do not attend classes and are victims of labor exploitation and violence. We will work to better inform about their rights, as well as to strengthen the capacities of the responsible institutions for preventing child labor exploitation and discrimination against children due to ethnic, religious or other belonging. We will help these families advocate to local authorities, with specific recommendations to bring appropriate programs for the protection of children's rights, said Todor Tsonev, president of the INI association.

Within the frame of the project, educational workshops for parents will be organized and a manual for protection of the rights of children from labor exploitation, discrimination and violence will be developed.

The research is funded by EU funds within the project "Strategic Partnerships for Developing a Social Change Agenda" implemented by the Association for Action against Violence and Human Trafficking "Open Gate".