Grooming Gangs Divided Britain, Now The National Inquiry Must Unite It

"The nature of these religiously motivated attacks on Sikh families can only be described by those who have dealt with them at a street level."

Deepa Singh
January 20, 2026 | 4 min. read | Opinion

This year, the Labour Party has promised to begin a national public inquiry into grooming gangs. Last week, the UK was reminded why this inquiry must include Sikh voices.

The sight of hundreds of Singhs confronting an alleged groomer in Hounslow (UK) brought the world to a momentary standstill last week. But this is not a new phenomenon. As the RASE report showed, for decades, British Sikh communities have fought against this issue.

For UK Sikhs, the issue defined as grooming involves vulnerable females being coerced into abusive relationships by what has thus far always been Muslim men. By design, the relationships separate the target from their family, isolating them. Last week was a prime example. A girl of 16-years-old left her family home to stay with a 34-year-old man, having been groomed by him for years. Technically, this is not illegal. In reality, this is a horror story for any family, and one which many Sikh families have suffered with.

As such, our community reacted as it has before, only this time it was more public than ever. And now no one can deny the issue, and no one can deny that Sikhs have stepped in to help a vulnerable girl when police could not. The perpetrator’s arrest for domestic common assault on the day highlights the limitations of the law that remain.

That is why the national grooming inquiry needs Sikh voices involved. The nature of these religiously motivated attacks on Sikh families can only be described by those who have dealt with them at a street level. For the inquiry, academics and politicians need to take a step back and learn from activists and families. The Sikh Youth UK national inquiry offers a natural avenue into this perspective, as we continue to study submissions from Sikhs across the UK regarding being victims of targeted grooming.

Voicing the grassroots perspective is vital as the topic at a mainstream level has become a political pawn, pushed for agendas rather than protecting the public. Right-wing politicians only reference grooming gangs to win votes with anti-immigrant rhetoric. Left-wingers denied that grooming gangs existed to keep favour with some communities.

For Sikhs, it has never been about anything other than basic safeguarding.

The hardest part of that was getting people to recognise the existence of a threat which often was not apparent until it was too late. The sad case of Sandeep Samra of Coventry is the starkest example of this. It was not until she was found planning to fly to Syria to join ISIS that authorities realised Sikh community groups were valid to be against this young girl’s newfound association with adult Muslim men.

Sikh targeted grooming cases are very unique, often relying on cultural proximity and ethnic religious affiliations to win trust. Police and social services are unable to spot the red flags which we can.

This is not the same as the way mainly white underage girls were targeted by predominantly Pakistani members of grooming gangs in Rotherham, Rochdale and beyond. Although those were similarly religiously motivated, the way the children were coerced into the abuse is different from what occurred with Sikh survivors.

So, whilst there is recognition that the grooming scourge impacted various communities, assuming they were targeted the same way will only continue to cloud what really happened. Without this, authorities still may not be able to adequately act when needed, and as such, Sikhs will continue to do what is needed to protect our community.

This safeguarding effort exists beyond the grooming issue, too. If Sikh pupils find themselves being seriously bullied, our sevadaars may end up outside of that school. When police themselves were carrying out harassment against Sikhs, the protest went to the police state. And when our women became targeted last year, we have gone to Gurdwaras across the UK to meet with them, handing out thousands of personal alarms and awareness material.

The spate of racist attacks on Sikh women last year is part of a new issue, but still partly fuelled by the grooming epidemic. In response to online posts about these attacks on Sikh women, countless comments online showed anger from Brits regarding the lack of publicity around historic grooming gang abuses. This sense of injustice has turned into a national racist backlash.

Whilst nothing can be done to go back and correct what went wrong, moving forward the government can attempt to bring impacted communities together, and I believe if we can address historic failures together, we can move forward positively as a society.

Not many people know better than me that exposing police failures by challenging grooming gangs can be costly at a personal level. But whatever it takes for authorities to admit their own limitations and support Sikh communities to safeguard ourselves will be worth it, and the 2026 national inquiry offers the best opportunity yet.

Deepa Singh is a senior sevadaar of Sikh Youth UK, 2017 Sandwell Council Outstanding Volunteer award winner, activist, content creator and community organiser.

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