Bârca

The commune is located in the southern part of Dolj County, on the left bank of Desnăuţi River, 40 km away from Craiova. It has a population of 3689 inhabitants of which 754 are self-identified Roma (2011 Census) and 1047 hetero-identified (unofficial sources).

The Roma community is confined to the Dragalina neighbourhood, dispersed on Târgului and Burebista Street and the 20 Rudari families are placed “towards the pond”. The Roma from the community speak both Romany and Romanian. Regarding the cultural make-up of the Roma communities, we find the Rudari (they identify themselves as Roma), lingurari (wooden spoon makers), cărămizari (brick makers), potcovari (farriers), tismănari (the oldest attested in the monograph, about 20-30 families), lautari (musicians), costorari (makers of traditional clothing in the village), lăieţi.

The Roma people declare themselves as Orthodox. There are no Roma people without identity documents. The employment rate in the commune is very low and most people are unskilled.

Education

There is one school that serves the Roma communities. This is “Adrian Păunescu” primary and lower secondary school and High School, where of the 670 students of the school, 21% are Roma. Preschool children have access to a kindergarten with normal schedule (high school structure), where four groups with approximately 80-100 children enrolled study. Roma children go to kindergarten, although it is situated 2-3 km from their neighbourhood. In the absenceof a minibus, the transport is provided by the community members via carts. In Dragalina neighbourhood, inhabited mostly by Roma, they have recently built a new kindergarten by means of European funds, which will be soon inaugurated. It has running water, sewage, a heating system, and teachers. Many children come to school without having attended kindergarten. All speak Romanian and only a few of themuse Romany at home.

The main problems are the lack of a minibus for the transport of children to school, the fear of parents letting girls go to school, the low level of education of Roma adults (75 % have under 7 years of schooling), high school dropout (in 2012 70 of the 88 cases were Roma people), the existence of children who are not enrolled in education, the lack of knowledge of Romanian, children left behind by parents working abroad, and absenteeism. Of the 40 teachers, 35 of them commute in to work, and only 5are from Bârca (but are despatched to other villages as well). There is currently no teacher of Romany, because they have not extended his contract of employment, for which a minimum of 10 applicants is required. No Roma teacher is employed. In the community there is no expert on Roma issues.

Health

In the community there is a pharmacy, 2 family physicians and 2 nurses.

Housing and Infrastructure

There are 87 Roma homes in the community of which 16 have no ownership documents. The Roma from Dragalina, Brătăşani, Tiglina, and Ortari neighbourhoods have ownership titles. Only a few houses are considered overcrowded (more than 2 persons / room) or are damaged due to the poor quality of the construction materials. The migrant Roma have invested their savings in buying or building houses (of bricks they made themselves from stone and sand they have purchased).

Access roads to the Roma community are paved and the ones within the community are dirt roads. The community has access to the electricity network, but the water comes from wells. Also, they lack access to local public / private transport.

Migration

Internal and external migration for work is common. About 50 Roma people go to Arad through a company to pick apricots and peaches; they return to the community in August. There is a great interest in migration for work abroad, and150-200 people have left to do so. The external circular migration process exists, as the Roma leave for a few months and then return to Romania. The money earned abroad is used to improve the housing situation.

There have not been and there are no ethnic tensions. Collaborations between Roma and non-Roma are numerous, they work together in trade, in by-the-day labour activities. The Rudari in particular are highly respected in the area.