RAFIQUE MALIK has been battling racial discrimination and prejudice in East Lancashire for more than 30 years.

He has been director of the Blackburn Racial Equality Council for seven years and, for more than 20 years before that, was in charge of the Hyndburn and Burnley and Pendle RECs.

Now, at the age of 60, he is to retire and has laid down the gauntlet to a successor. "I've done my bit. I would like a new person to come up with new ideas to carry the flag," he says.

Mr Malik remembers the early days of race relations in East Lancashire in the 1960s when the whole issue was something of a novelty.

"It used to be all samozas, saris and steel bands," the father of seven recalls.

However, over the years, the business of race relations and equal opportunities has become one of the hottest of political hot potatoes and the caseload for RECs, on issues like immigration, has grown massively.

"There's still a lot that needs to be done to make employers aware of the disadvantage they are suffering by not utilising the talents of young Asian people," he says.

"Blackburn has 35 per cent Asian heritage school leavers and a substantial number are going to university or getting higher education.

"However, their skills and knowledge are not fully appreciated by local employers. "We have a major brain drain of highly educated Asians being lured by the south of the country."

Mr Malik would like to see the numbers of Asian-heritage workers in all fields reflect the changing ethnic composition of East Lancashire.

"There are 30 ethnic minority police officers in the whole of Lancashire out of 3,500, so it's less than one per cent," he adds.

"There is a will at the top level and the Chief Constable has put it higher on her agenda, but there is a need to find out what are the underlying causes and obstacles to increasing the number of Asian police officers.

"I honestly believe that if a senior police officer made it a target to create 100 Asian officers in a year it could be done."

He backs calls from the Commission for Racial Equality which include the power to investigate big employers and carry out a "racial equality audit" to make sure there is no discrimination.

He is also in favour of following the American model where employers are required to have an ethnic make-up mirroring their community.

He believes that many firms pay lip service to equal opportunities without really meaning it.

"They are saying it and not doing it. The reason is that the higher managers may be committed to equal opportunities but the gatekeepers, the people who recruit, are not. "If we have positive action then employers will be required to have a fairly representative workforce of the community they are located in."

He cites a case where an Asian woman from Blackburn was turned down for a job at a Manchester company because she said she would have to wear trousers rather than a dress. She was later given compensation but not a job.

"If every company in East Lancashire resolves to have a fair representation of the community in its workforce racial discrimination will disappear within a year," adds Mr Malik, who lives in Burnley with his wife Nasreen.

At the moment young Asians are four times more likely to be on the dole than whites.

"The main point is that society is having to pay through the nose in crime, drug taking and other anti-social behaviour among ethnic minority young people. That is costing a lot more than it will cost to employ them."

However, despite the fact that there is obviously still a long way to go, Mr Malik believes good progress has been made in the last 30 years in bringing the two communities closer together.

"Despite everything, Britain is still the best and most civilised country, with respect for everybody's freedom of thought and expression."

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