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Commissioner
Linguistic Minorities
42nd Report
July 2003 to June 2004
This is the 42nd annual report covering the period July 2003 to June
2004. It is the fifth Report that the present Commissioner has the honour to
present since he assumed office on 24 February 2003. The delay in the
presentation of Report is mainly due to the efforts that had to be put in for
getting the relevant information from the concerned states. We had expected
that there will be some improvement if we receive prompt replies from the
states but our expectations were belied.
The Commissioner has been touring some states and has held discussions
with the representatives of the Linguistic Minorities and the teachers working
in the schools meant for the Linguistic Minorities. The objective was to
acquaint himself with the situation prevailing in the field and the specific
difficulties that they have to face. He has also met the Officers of the States
during his visits and has shared with them the actual and perceived
difficulties which the linguistic minorities meet so that necessary corrective
action can be taken. The handicaps which the states face were also brought to
the notice of the Commissioner. Some of these points have been included in this
Report.
I must thank all these persons
who made themselves available for suggestions, comments and discussions because
without their support, it would not have been possible to prepare this Report.
In fact, I would add to other things ‘criticism’ also for which special thanks
are due. Some said that nothing is
likely to come out of the meeting but were still there to help me. It is really
creditable. I hope that the Central Government Ministries and the State
Governments work together to bring an end to their pessimism.
It was suggested by my friend and former Commissioner Linguistic
Minorities Shri R. K. Sayeed, that I should mention the names of the
institutions visited. When it comes to thanking them by name, either the
institutions or the persons, or to list them, it is beyond me. They are so many
that it is difficult to prepare a list. But I salute all of them and assure
them that I have not forgotten their hospitality and cooperation though I have
not been able to name them..
The format of this Report is the same as for the 41st Report. Mainly
the information supplied by the states has been used though other material has
also been used. The data, where available, has been reported. It is
supplemented by the information received from the district officers, and the
impressions gathered from the discussions with the participants. Obviously the Commissioner has not been able
to cover all the States or the various areas within the State. The situation
varies
from place
to place, between states and between areas within a state. Still there sections
are some common indicators which give the idea of the situation in the
State. There are difficulties which are
shared by the various of people and all those who have
been working for the welfare of the Linguistic Minorities.
The chapter on safeguards has been merged with the introduction. Those
who are interested in the history of the development of the safeguards, may
refer to our earlier Reports. The thirty eighth and the thirty-ninth report is
available on the website http://www.nclm.nic.in and can be
downloaded. Incidentally it was a matter
of pleasure that the site is receiving some attention from many persons. It is purposed to enhance the utility of the
website and the suggestions to do so are welcome.
There have been some inputs from the earlier reports, the census
reports as also from some other studies apart from the information supplied by
the states for this Report. I must apologise to the scholars from whose work I
have benefited but have not specifically given the source. This is a result of
failure to note down the source when I read the artcles but which made
sufficient impress on me to remember them when I was writing my piece. I thank
all of these unnamed persons for their assistance.
The order in which the states
appear in this report is based on the Devanagari alphabetical order.
The detailed information about the linguistic data is avoided to save
space. These details can be seen on our website http://www.nclm.nic.in.
It can also be sent by e mail on request to nclm@sancharnet.in.
We are in the process of compiling a list of such institutions as have
taken up the work of working with the linguistic minorities. We would welcome
information about them.
I deem it a privilege to express my thanks to Ministries of the
Government of India and to the Governments and Administrations of all the States and
(Kewal Krishan Sethi)
Commissioner
Linguistic Minorities
Forty Second
Report
National
Commissioner Linguistic Minorities
Year
July 2003 to June 2004
1.
Introduction
1. Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the statesman and the first Prime Minister had, in his vision, an abiding faith in the unity of the country. In his classical book,' The Discovery of India', he writes –
"The diversity of
2. This diversity is
nowhere more emphatically presented than in the multitude of languages which
are spoken through the length and breadth of the country. They come from
different language groups – Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic and
Tibeto-Burman. And these languages are spoken by people whose number ranges
from a few hundred to many a crore. Some
have a recognised script and a long tradition of literature, secular and
religious, while some are struggling to find a script and have only the folk
lore to keep the language going. Yet they have all been preserved and practiced
without let
or hindrance. They have survived the waves of new arrivals. They retreated but
they survived. They lay dormant and then got revived. It is, indeed, a
stimulating experience.
Safeguards
3. Following the reorganization of the states on the linguistic basis, there was a conscious effort to reassure the linguistic minorities in the various states that their interests will be safeguarded. The safeguards arrived at through Constitutional provisions and by evolution of consensus amongst the states can be listed as under.
a. Translation and publication of important rules, regulations, notices, etc., into all languages, which are spoken by at least 15% of the total population at district or sub-district level;
b. Declaration of minority languages as second official language in districts where persons speaking such languages constitute at least 60% of the population;
c. Receipt of, and reply to, representations in minority languages
d. Instruction through mother tongues/ minority languages at the Primary stage of education;
e. Instruction through minority languages at the Secondary stage of education;
f. linguistic minority pupils, and inter-school adjustments;
g. Provision for text books and teachers in minority languages;
h. Implementation of Three-language Formula;
i. No insistence upon knowledge of State’s Official Language at the time of recruitment. Test of proficiency in the State’s Official Language to be held before completion of probation
j. Issue of Pamphlets in minority languages detailing safeguards available to linguistic minorities;
k. Setting up of proper machinery at the State and district levels.
4. In the beginning the concern was repeatedly expressed and whenever there was a deviation, remedial steps taken. As the system evolved, the attention wavered and all these concerns became commonplace. Gradually a slackening was noted and needless to say the implementation of the safeguards at present is not uniform over the various states. With the passing of time the priorities have changed. A general sense of apathy seems to have taken hold of some of the states for various reasons. Perhaps one of the reasons is the growing complexities of the administration. The harassed administrator is far too much occupied with fire fighting operations to take a look at the other issues which can be left alone to take care of themselves. At the higher level, there are other problems which are of much more urgency to them.
Linguistic Minorities is not the burning
issue
5. Except in some states which are committed to the cause, the very term 'Linguistic Minorities' raises eyebrows. The issue is not a burning issue. It does not
result in violent protests and since we are living in the days of immediate reaction and expedient policies, the long term implications of neglect of the linguistic minorities or the minority languages does not appear to be a problem worth spending a few minutes of concentrated thinking. In my visits to various places, I have met many officers who were in a hurry to get away from the meeting as they had to attend to much more pressing (sic) issues. It is certainly not for me to comment on the relative importance of various tasks which a bureaucrat has to attend to. But it is expected that this issue of linguistic minorities, which affects large number of individuals, would also merit some consideration.
6. Either this attitude of postponing the
issue or the general apathy which afflicts the bureaucracy leads to the delay
in sending a reply to the questionnaire sent for eliciting the statistical and
other information from the states. The questionnaire had been sent out in
August 2004 and the last date for receiving the information was stated as
October 15, 2004. By that date only one State – we must name it –
7. During my discussions with various linguistic groups, the discussions many times veered round to the question as to the purpose of all these meetings and discussions when the Commissioner can not even ensure that reply to the questionnaire will be sent to him let alone
reports on the redressal of
he grievances or about the action taken on his recommendations. The
representations given by them, they feared, will be just so much more waste paper basket food. Thus
the General Secretary of Anjuman Taraqi Urdu Hind, in their meeting with the
Commissioner on January 7, 2005 opened the meeting with the words that unless the Commissioner
is given some powers to requisition documents and compel the witnesses to
attend, the office will remain a paper tiger. In fact the word 'tiger' is also
being used by me to perhaps satisfy my ego, otherwise the speaker meant much
worse. The same feelings were expressed in
8. The memorandum presented by Sourashtra Vidya Peetarn and Sreshtha Sourashtra Sahitya Sabha contained a long list of the memoranda submitted earlier. It would be interesting, though painful, to give the extract of the list.
1. To Asst. Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities
during his visit to
2. To Commissioner Linguistic Minorities on 21.8.1964.
3. To
Commissioner Linguistic Minorities on 10.6.1968 after his visit to
4. To Commissioner Linguistic Minorities on 3.11.1969.
5. To Commissioner Linguistic Minorities on 1.4.1970.
6. To Mr. Yadav, Minister for Education, Govt. of India on 8.1.1975 and copy sent to Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities.
7. To the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities during her visit to
8. Smt. Neera Dogra, Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities on her
visit to
9. To the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities during her visit to Tamil Nadu on 3.11.1976
10. The Asst. Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities on 25.4.1982.
11. The Asst. Commissioner
for Linguistic Minorities on 26.12.1983 enclosing a note to the Secretary,
Minorities Commission,
12. A note to Mr.J.S.Taleyar Khan, Member, Minorities Commission, on 23.5.1986 through Sri C.Thangaraju, IAS, Commissioner and Secy. to Govt. Social Welfare Dept. Govt. of Tamil Nadu.
13. To the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities on 1. 10. 1998.
9. Obviously all these memoranda failed to elicit any favourable development. Under these circumstances no one can blame them if they feel that they are only adding one more memorandum to the list.
10. In a seminar on Minorities, Education and Language in Twenty-First Century, organized by Zakir Hussain Study Centre, one of the conclusions reads as follows:-
11. “The Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities (CLM), despite his status as a Constitutional authority, enjoys no authority and state governments do not even supply the required information to him. The reports of the CLM, though tabled in the Parliament, are not discussed and do not receive attention as they hardly contain up-to-date information. The Conference proposes that the post be abolished and replaced by a National Commission for Linguistic Minorities with quasi-judicial authority.”
12. All this is due to the fact that when the Constitution envisaged the appointment of Special Officer for the Linguistic Minorities, it was presumed that the question of treatment of linguistic minorities will be concern of every body who are in charge of running the various states and the Government at centre. The Special Officer was merely to remind them about the deficiencies which he may come across or which may be brought to his notice It was with this understanding that in their meeting held in August 1961 the Chief Ministers included the following in their conclusions viz. "The Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities should not only prepare the annual reports, but make more frequent reports on important subjects which he should send to the Chief Ministers concerned and to the Home Ministry who will circulate it to all the Chief Ministers."
13. At that point of time, the situation where the States will relegate the subject of linguistic minorities to the background was not envisaged. Of late the term 'linguistic minorities' occurs only as an after thought whereas the main concern is with the religious minorities. Just how this is so is clearly reflected in the Ordinance issued for creating the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions. This Commission will look after the affiliation of
the minority institutes to the Central Universities which are six in number at the time of promulgation of Ordinance. Just why these minority institutes will seek affiliation outside the State and to one of the universities specified is not clear. Normally the point is relevant only when considered in relation to the Linguistic Minorities. The question of such affiliation came up before the Government of India and, they, in their memorandum of 1958 included the following –
"5. Affiliation of Schools and Colleges using Minority Languages:-
Connected with the proposals contained in the preceding paragraphs is the question of the affiliation of educational institutions located in the new or reorganized States to appropriate Universities or Boards of Education. It is, of course, desirable that every effort should be made to evolve arrangements whereby educational institutions like schools and colleges can be affiliated, in respect of courses of study in the mother-tongue, to Universities and other authorities which are situated in the same State. However, it may not always be possible to make such arrangements, and having regard to the number of institutions of this kind, it may some times be convenient, both from the point of view of the Universities or the educational authorities concerned, and from the point of view of the institutions themselves that they should be permitted to seek affiliation to appropriate bodies located outside the State. This may be regarded, in fact, as a necessary corollary to the provisions contained in Article 30 of the Constitution which gives to the minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice."
14. In fact the affiliation of the religious minorities institutes which, usually, do not have a separate language identified with the religion, is not really the point at issue. They are not at a disadvantage vis a vis the normal educational institutes managed by the majority group or by the State in so far as the affiliation is concerned. If the intention is to give them the added prestige of being affiliated to the Central Universities, the concession should have been extended to all the educational institutes just as it has been done for the schools which are getting affiliated to CBSE in an ever increasing number. In any case the cause of education can hardly be served by the affiliation to a particular university.
15. It may be argued that the Commission is not exclusively for religious minorities and it applies equally to linguistic minorities institutes. But this is not correct. In Section 4, it is provided that the Chairperson and the members shall belong to the minority community. Obviously this can not apply to linguistic minority. For example can a Telugu speaking person be appointed as Chairman. He may belong to minority community in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka but not in Andhra Pradesh. So it will be against the Act to appoint him so. The only persons who can qualify are persons who belong to Urdu speaking or Sindhi speaking minorities which are minority everywhere. (Not counting the non scheduled languages, of course.). But then the communities have to be so declared by the Government and no declaration of linguistic minorities is yet on the cards.
16. To return to the point under discussion, it was not the intention to comment adversely on the creation of the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions but merely to underscore the point that the over riding attention to the religious minorities have denied the attention that the linguistic minorities deserve. Such a situation was obviously not envisaged when the appointment of Commissioner Linguistic Minorities was included in the Constitution.
17. The creation of a number of Commissions like Human Rights Commission, State Minorities Commission, Scheduled Tribes Commission. and a host of Enquiry Commissions which have the powers of the civil courts to summon witnesses, force their attendance and the production of the documents inspire the linguistic minorities everywhere to demand similar powers for the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities or its replacement by a Commission with similar powers. The Commissioner has discussed this point in his forty first Report.(Para 1.38 to 1.42) and argued against such powers arguing that, without the political will to perform, these powers will not make a difference to the fortunes of the linguistic minorities. Sometimes the legal view of the matter may not be the democratic view. The latter calls for a constant exercise to adjust the policies to suit the largest number of people without creating bitterness. It must be remembered that the subject of safeguards for the linguistic minorities were always considered to be a part of the national integration movement and not merely an expedient move to impress a particular community about the intentions of the Government of the day.
18. There is one more argument against the devolution of powers of a court on the Commissioner (or creation of a Commission) is that, by their very nature, the courts look at an individual case and examines the evidence and the arguments presented by the two sides. The overall impact of a decision is not, and probably can not be, considered. This may undergo some changes in the present day atmosphere of Public Interest Litigation but that avenue is open even now in the High Courts and Supreme Court. The persuasion of the authorities by public opinion is not the essence of such decisions. The overall impact of a decision by the State Government has to be considered while making a recommendation or implementing a decision.
19. Still, the Government may like to consider the repeated demand of the linguistic minorities for creation of a Commission or devolving of powers of the civil court on the Commissioner despite the present Commissioner's misgivings about the achievement of objectives by such a development. It is to be noted that this Commission will be separate from the one constituted recently for considering the question of reservations for linguistic and religious minorities in the services under the chairmanship of Shri Ranga Nath Mishra and with Shri Tahir Mohammad, Shri Mahendar Singh and Shri Wilson as its members. This will be a standing Commission for resolving the problems faced by the linguistic minorities.
The changed circumstances.
20. If this devolution of additional powers is not the solution, then what is? Can the concerns of the sixties in the twentieth century be transferred to the first decade of the twenty first century. The technological revolution has made it both more difficult and easier. More difficult in the sense that the technological perfection is achieved through some widespread languages and the local languages have to take back seats. English is, thus, the favourite language for acquisition. Hindi, though spoken by over forty crores of
tkrh gS vHkh rd ml fLFkfr rd fodflr ugha gqbZ gS, dqN ds people has not been developed, some would say on account of vested interests, to the extent where it can be the language of technology but its time is bound to come. Same is true for some of other Indian languages but it will be at the cost of the localized languages e.g. Tulu, Khandeshi or Dogri.
.21. On the other hand, the computers have made it easier to acquire and maintain a language and a script. Even the minor languages can be put on the website and can be learnt without the need of a formal school being opened. Whole new scripts can be easily represented on the computers and booklets prepared. The new scripts invented like Ol Chiki or the ancient scripts like Meitei Mayek can be used to prepare the reading materials if the people from these linguistic groups are prepared to do the needful.
22. Another development has been the
growing importance of the distance education. Most of the Universities are now
running regular correspondence courses and it is easier to pick up advanced studies
in the language of one's own choice. The television, the CD and internet are
other items of the new technology which can assist the education and take it
out of the routine. And the distance education is not limited to higher
education but has percolated to school level also. An example in
This is also at the expense of the Indian languages. But this is a temporary phase. As the movement of distance education picks up momentum, the regional languages are bound to become the vehicles of education but atthe cost of minor languages. But their time will lso come.
23. Naturally in these circumstances the safeguards for the linguistic minorities have to undergo changes to keep up with the times.
24. Are all of these
safeguards relevant today? Will they be relevant in future? To consider this
aspect, we have to look around and learn from the experience of others. There
is a feeling that if we do not look at a problem, it will go away. Indeed it
has been the practice to first ignore the problem. If this does not solve it,
the next step is to create divisions so as to sow confusion and hope that the
main problem will be forgotten. Thus when we talk of Bhili in Rajasthan, the
response is that there is Mewari and Marwari and Mewati and even the languages
of Sikar and
25. But the trouble is that even when one of the strategies outlined above appears to be succeeding, the problems do not go away. They merely lie dormant. In the long run, it is a better policy to meet them head on and solve them in the spirit of give and take. All of the strategies outlined above are in vogue in different parts of the country. But with varying success.
26. Just how it happens can be learnt from
history. We have referred to rejuvenation of Maori language in the previous
Reports. In the last 200 years the Maori language has had a curious history,
with its ups and downs. In 1800 it was the overwhelmingly dominant language
spoken in entire
27. Thus after being suppressed for a few generations and just when the suppression appeared to be succeeding and a whole new generation had come up without the knowledge of Maori language, the language got revived and is on way to be the second official language of New Zealand.
28. Similar is the story of Welsh. Welsh
was presented with an even greater challenge but it has revived after centuries
of neglect. Romana people (the Gypsies)
were spread over many countries but did not lose their language. It is back and
is the subject taught in many universities in
29. Increasingly these languages neglected, and even suppressed are now becoming the languages of communication and much more in their areas.
30. One of the reasons advanced for the absence of the education in the minority languages is that the costs are too high. The text books are not available, the reason cited being that with lesser number of books to be printed, it is not a profitable business. Not enough teachers are available. Their training is a difficult preposition.
31. Let us consider this preposition. I
quote from a journal at some length to put the point at issue in right
perspective. This is from an article by Miklós Kontra of
"According to some people, who consider
the language through minority languages costlier, the taxpayers’ money should
not be spent on educating minorities through the medium of their mother tongue. For instance,
according to Noel Epstein, an education editor in the
“May tells us quite a lot about how Welsh or Irish or Maori have been revived in recent times, but hardly concerns himself with the costs. It used to be said of Gandhi that it cost an awful lot of money to keep him in poverty, and it costs the British taxpayer quite a bit to supply a few Welsh speakers with a television channel of their own.”
Thus, according to Minogue, the few Welsh
speakers are not among the British taxpayers. Apparently, the Welsh do not pay
taxes in
In a democratic state where education is made accessible to all citizens without any discrimination, one would expect to find no difference in educational levels among the majority and the minorities. If a national minority constitutes, say, 10 percent of the population of a State, we would expect that 10 percent of all the university-educated citizens belong to this minority. But this is not the case as revealed by various studies.
Consequently, recognizing the fact that ethnic Hungarians pay taxes in Slovakia, Rumania and Serbia just like any other citizens of those States but are disproportionately undereducated in comparison to Slovaks, Rumanians and Serbs, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that the Hungarian minorities are subsidizing the higher education of the majority nations in the respective States where they pay taxes.
Such patterns of educational discrimination are linguistic in as much as they concern linguistic minorities. Such discrimination may be unremarkable for people who subscribe to what the Slovak political scientist Miroslav Kusý calls the principle of the superiority of the dominant nation in a State, but it is clearly in violation of the principle of civil coexistence of all citizens of a State. ”
32. In
33. The literacy rate itself is misleading. Familiarity with the writing of the language is considered sufficient for a person to be considered as literate. If we consider the statistics of the persons who have completed the senior secondary (class XII), the disparity will be even more evident. In my visits to various districts, I have been confronted with the figures of how the children have studied up to the level till the education was in their language. In my last report, I have cited the case of a veterinary doctor, who went away to Andhra Pradesh to continue his studies in Urdu (which was not available in his district Berhampur, Orissa) and when he came back, he was denied admission to MBBS course for he had not studied in Oriya and had to perforce become a Veterinary doctor.
34. Unfortunately I have not come across a study which compares the achievements of the linguistic groups at the higher levels of education. The Commissioner feels that such a study will be worthwhile to prove or disprove the thesis. This will reinforce, or override, the emotional arguments for the adoption of the local minority languages.
35. Though there are no studies as such but here and there the educationists keep on referring to the point on the basis of their experiences. for example here is a news item form the Hindu (Vishakhapatnam Edition) dated October 12, 2005.
"Children in primary schools would learn well if they were taught in their mother‑tongues or In the dialect their
parents speak in, Chukka Ramaiah, the educationist, said here on Monday. .
Addressing a State seminar on 'Inti‑Bhasha' (the language of home), he said the children were unable to cope with the language of the schools, as it did not match the language system they shared with those around them.
'Inti‑Bhasha, a book authored by Mr. Ramaiah, was released by the Minister for School Education, N. Rajyalakshmi, on the occasion. A C.D on Rammaiah Pathalu was released by the Minister for Higher Education, Pinnamaneni Venketswar Rao.
Mr. Ramaiah said school curriculum should be prepared keeping in view that Telugu had multiple dialects, Tribal students from an Adilabad village would better understand when taught about Bhim instead of Abraham Lincoln.
During a visit to a Karimnagar district school, he had found students asking their teacher what an 'araka' (plough), a word they had read in the Telugu, was. They could
have understood the meaning easily if it was written in the book as 'nagall'‑ a word in the local dialect. He said. "Though I am not a language pandit, I know what children can understand. There is nothing wrong in reaching out to children in a language they understand."
He said the curriculum for primary education should be prepared at the district level. Textbooks must also be published at the district level, he said."
36. The point is that it has been accepted that it is the duty of the State to see that every child is entitled to receive, at the cost of the State, education up to the year fourteen. And when we say education, we mean education in the real sense. The framers of the Constitution envisaged that the primary education will be in mother tongue. To postpone it on the excuse that it is costlier to do so is going against the spirit of the Constitution. The decision appears to be that either you have it my way or not to have it at all. Ford, when he launched his people's car told the public that they can have the colour of their choice provided it is black. We appear to be following the same arguments.
37. The Commissioner has argued in a previous Report that the extra expenditure involved is not substantial and certainly not of the magnitude which can not be borne by the state. It is also observed that the argument is given by more prosperous states whereas smaller states are keen on achieving the goal of teaching through the mother tongues. This will be apparent when we discuss the status report of the various states and the two opposing groups need not be named here.
38. It can be hoped that there will be a change of heart and the safeguards for the linguistic minorities will be implemented with the sincerity and efforts that they deserve.
39. One of the questions frequently raised and to which we have referred in our previous reports is the level up to which the minority languages can be used as the medium of instruction. Here we have to make a distinction between the languages which are languages of some state or other (but including Urdu and Sindhi which, though not regional language of any state are yet fully developed) and the languages which are localized (excluding Urdu and Sindhi) in nature. The main characteristics of such languages is the non existence of long and substantial literary traditions in writing either due to lack of a traditional script or for some other reason. In this category are also included languages like Santhali which is spread over three states but is still to be considered as not fully developed in view of short history of written literature.
40. The languages originally included in
the eighth schedule and Sindhi were those which were fully developed and were already
used as media to some extent. Obviously in the pre independence days, the
medium for the higher education was English. English was rich in technological
vocabulary and, with time, it further improved since the bulk of the developed
countries doing original research and innovations were English speaking.
41. It was envisaged that the Indian languages can easily be developed and become the vehicle of the technology and science A Commission for Scientific and Technical Terms was set up and proceeded to work with great enthusiasm. Individuals like Raghuvira were also engaged in similar task. The time span for the development was considered to be ten years. This was the period in which Hindi would have displaced English as the official language.
42. But there were other forces on work.
The smooth transition to independence meant that the classes which were
privileged continued to enjoy their perks. Majority of those who had sacrificed
for the independence struggle felt that it was the time to compensate
themselves. They were the new privileged class. Very soon it was clear that if
there was a new generation aware of their rights, the future for the old and
the new privileged classes was bleak. The experts of the divide and rule
policy, ably trained by the British, soon managed to grow seeds of discord. The
Indian languages were declared to be unfit, not only for teaching of science
and technology but even for official work. The first move was to postpone the
change over to Hindi as official language of the
43. Meanwhile the efforts to enrich the Indian languages were scoffed at. The new terms were systematically subjected to ridicule. The development of the regional languages were similarly thwarted. The technology was not at a standstill but the efforts to match the terms in Indian languages were. The gap grew bigger.
44. So we come to the present day when even the thought of removal of English can not be envisaged. The opening up of the software markets and onset of off sourcing is the most popular slogan for the adoption of English by the entire country. It is very clear that this results in the advantage for the classes already reaping the benefits of education. There are some examples of the erstwhile non privileged group coming up in the business or technology. The few exceptions quoted often only prove the rule. For a long time the literacy rates in the rural areas and the tribal areas has been lacking behind the urban and advanced areas. One should not be misled by the figures often quoted as literates since the definition is such that it merely clouds the issue. Despite periodical statements of intentions to achieve cent percent literacy in ten (sic) years, and the resolve of increasing the budget for education to six percent of the Gross National Product, it has remained where it was. The resources which were available mostly went to the higher education. The adult education programmes became show pieces with literacy marches, road side shows and the growth of the NGOs. The provision and training of teachers was not the main item of the agenda. It was overshadowed by the central committees stressing the need of decentralised curriculum whose outlines will be determined by the experts at the center and copied by the local outfits. Even the courts took a hand in ordering the inclusion of this
1961 2,23,788
1971 1,91,595
1981 2,02,440
1991 1,78,598
or that topic in the curriculum. The real decentralization never took place.
45. A significant feature of Indian
bilingualism is that it is complementary. Thus, an individual may use a
particular language at home, another in the neighbourhood and the bazaar, and
still another in certain formal domains such as education, administration, and
the like. This is not only true of an individual but such patterns of selection
of different languages for day to day use are revealed by the groups of
populations as well. An individual usually has some mastery of his home
language, and the regional/ state language (when the home language is different
from the regional/ state language). In addition the languages of national and
international communication, Hindi and English, are also part of the linguistic
repertoire of a sizeable number of Indians. In
46. This is reflected in the growing number of people who know English. The number of mother tongue speakers of English is on the decline, according to the decennial Census – the figures being
1961: 2,23.788
1971: 1,91,595
1981: 2,02,440
1991: 1,78,598
Bilingualism as argument against minor languages.
47. At the same time, the number of speakers declaring English as second or third language is increasing. As per the 1991 Census, the percentage of bilinguals and tri-linguals in English (8.00%, 3.5% respectively). Bilingual means the second language was said to be English, Trlingual is where the third language is declared as English. Normally English as the second language is returned when the mother tongue is the same as the regional language otherwise the second language is usually the regional language.
48. The growing importance of English is reflected in the way state after state are going in for English as the language to be taken up from class I itself. Recently the NCERT has said that they are recommending a syllabus where the student from class One to Five will not have more than two books. How this will be reconciled with the more and more languages to be taught from class one is not clear, the educational authorities not having any coordinated plan for primary education. The reason given by the NCERT is that this will enable the child to develop his personality. It remains to be seen how this will be in practice and also what prescription they have for the linguistic minorities. Probably none because, as remarked earlier, the policies are made piecemeal. Due to the existing practices the work of linguistic minorities is with the Ministry of Social Justice and that of devising the syllabi with the Ministry of Education and there is no contacts between the two. Thus there is a notice of intention of forming a Commission for Minorities for reservation in educational institution announced by the former ministry but a Minorities Education Commission is formed by the latter through an Ordinance.
49. Nevertheless it will be in order to consider what the ideal plan will be for the linguistic minorities. The basic question is what is the goal of the education in the languages. The proficiency of students in using languages is reported to have deteriorated over the years. No definitive evidence is, however, available to indicate whether students enrolled in and/ or completing different levels of education are less proficient in the use of languages than those who completed education 15-20 years back. Irrespective of the expressed opinions, improvement in language skills of students is important, considering the significance of language proficiency for cognitive development and further learning.
50. It would seem necessary, among other things, to: (a) undertake study of the language attainments of students; (b) specify objectives of teaching different languages, particularly at the school stage where three languages are to be studied compulsorily; and (c) identify language skills that students must attain in terms of the specified objectives.
51. In Tamil Nadu Arvial Science has been introduced in the linguistic minority schools, the idea being to familiarize the students with the technical terms in Tamil to make their life smoother when they finally switch over to Tamil as a medium. The experiment is in an early stage and it will be some time before the benefits are clear. But this is a half hearted attempt appears from the fact that there are neither teachers nor are there to be any examinations to check the competence achieved. The reaction of the teachers and the parents is not very encouraging since they consider the learning of vocabulary divorced from every day life difficult and unproductive. Language learning is expedited when it is contextualized through expressive writing and discussions (or talking)and the information is filtered through personal experience.
52. It must be borne in mind that all genuine learning involves discovery. Language has a heuristic function. It is also clear that the language learning can be effective when it is spread over various subjects in what is called LAC (Language Across Curriculum).
53. The point to be urged is that there should be an early decision on the objectives of the language teaching. Before we consider that, there is another point which merits consideration,
54. The tag of 'linguistic
minority'" is not applied uniformly or automatically. The term has not been
defined in the Constitution or by any Act. The State and
55. A language need not be officially recognized or declared as a minority language by the competent authority. However, it is noted that the Official Language Acts of some States recognize a language as the Official Language and identify other minority languages which are permitted for use in the administration or education in a specific region or regions of a state. Some of the Acts merely refer to linguistic minorities without specifying the languages.
56. Another complication arises from the fact that wrongly, and unfortunately, some of the languages have got associated with religious denominations. The political compulsions take over and some officers have been so misled by this phenomenon that the information sent is for only one language.
57. Indian multilingualism has thrown up a
mosaic of linguistic minorities. Apart from this, as we already saw,
practically the existence of linguistic minorities officially stretches across
different levels. Levels and different kinds of linguistic
majorities-minorities in
1. Scheduled Languages
(all these being considered major languages) vs. Non-Scheduled Languages (all
these being considered minor languages) Presently 22 languages are included in
the list of scheduled languages. Not all of them are principal languages in
their states. Thus the new languages added (Bodo, Santhali, Dogri and Maithili)
do not have a state where they are the principal language(s). Earlier also
Sanskrit, Urdu and Sindhi were in similar position. The speakers of Scheduled
Languages constitute 97.00% of the population of
2. Notified tribal languages vs. non-notified tribal languages: Some of the tribal languages have been scheduled as tribal languages by a Presidential Order published in the Gazette of India, Part II, Section 1, dated August 13, 1960: Abor, Adi, Anal, Angami, Ao, Assuri, Agarva, Bhili, Bhumij, Birhor, Binija/ Birijia, Bodo including Kachari, Mech, Chang-Naga, Chiri, Dafla, Dimasa, Gadaba, Garo, Gondi, Ho, Halam, Juang, Kabui, Kanawari, Kharia, Khasi, Khiemnungam, Khond/Kandh, Koch, Koda/ Kora, Kolami, Konda, Konyak, Korku, Kota, Korwa, Koya, Kurukh/Oraon, Lushai/Mizo, Mikir, Miri, Mishmi, Mru, Mundari, Nicobarese, Paite, Parji, Rabha, Rangkhul, Rengma, Santali, Savara, Sema,Tangkhul,Thado,Toda,Tripuri/ Kokborok The criteria for such distinction is not understood. This is not very important as very few of these languages are getting attention which they deserve.
3. Languages with the
literary tradition and the languages without such a tradition.
4. The recognized
linguistic minorities versus the unrecognized linguistic minorities. The
languages of this later group do not find any place and get included under
'other languages'. The Mhal (of
58. It has been remarked
that some of the linguistic minorities have been discriminated against on the
grounds that their language does not have a traditional script. There has been
a three fold response to this objection. Some of the languages have adopted an
existing script with all its advantages of being a well used script with
technological equipment already in place. Thus Tulu is being written in Kannada
script; Bodo in Devanagari, Bishnupriya Manipuri in Bengali script and so on.
Some of the language groups have sought to revive their traditional script.
Thus Sourashtra linguistic group in Tamil Nadu is using its own script as well
as modified Tamil script. There are attempts to revive Meitei Mayek for
Manipuri, Maithili script for Maithili. Roman script has been the favourite in
the tribal languages in the North East, under the influence of the missionaries
but it is also used by some in
attempt has been going on for a few decades and has many adherents.
59. Some of he languages have been caught in the web of scripts. Sindhi is the most notable example with protagonists of Arabic and Devnagari arguing their case strongly. Konkani is being written in Roman script (as remarked above), in Devnagari and in Kannada.
60. There are some who believe that the teaching through tribal languages is not the solution. It is stated that “With inexperienced teachers and insufficient reading materials these programs are apologies for education.” Contributing to the problem are literacy materials with very little practical village content and little that would be motivational for learners.
61. On the one hand the creation of reading material is not encouraged or no funds are allotted for its production and, on the other hand, the lack of material is cited as the reason for not using the language. This was the experience in Sourashtra language in Tamil Nadu. It was said that Sourashtra does not have a script, much less a book. The Sourashtra people produced a book for use at the primary level of education and submitted it to the Government for production. Nothing has happened for the last two or three decades. But the reason quoted for non use of the language is the same old one.
62. In this context, a
linguistic survey of Tribal Dialects and Cultures, focusing on four districts of
Orissa, reported that: “
63. There are also reports that the
tribals themselves do not want to learn through the tribal languages. In
Chandrapur in
64. Though it may appear to be out of context but the experience of Tamil Nadu is a pointer to the real reason. As is well known, Tamil Nadu has set its face against three language formula arguing that it meant forcing of Hindi on the Tamilians. It adopted what is known as two language formula which meant Tamil and English. As is well known, Tamil Nadu is also in the forefront of the implementations of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities. It believes in teaching though the mother tongue. The two aspects taken together meant that for the linguistic minorities, there was their mother tongue and English. Since there is only two language formula so Tamil is left out. But it is not enquired what reaction it causes. Studying through one's language is welcome but it should not lead to exclusion from the main stream of the State. There is no compulsion for knowing Tamil at the time of recruitment but the person concerned has to pass the test in Tamil after joining the service and it is of quite a high standard. I have been faced with the demand that the linguistic minorities should be allowed to learn Tamil in the school. There have been persistent demands and at one time the Education Minister conceded it. But the catch was that this had to be done outside the school hours and further that there were to be no teachers, and worse, no examinations. The very idea was defeated. The students wanted to learn Tamil so that they can compete later on with other students who come through Tamil medium. With no examinations and no facilities, the purpose would not be served.
65. The point is that Tamil is to be learnt not for its own sake (the students pick up Tamil any way in their daily life) but for the sake of competition. The same thinking applies to the tribals. If they apprehend that the teaching through tribal languages is merely to deprive them of the benefits of knowing the regional language, there will be hesitation. There is no such hesitation in the North East because no such stigma attaches to it. Santhalis do not fear making Santhali the medium at the primary stage of education. If the tribals can be assured that tribal languages are being introduced for their convenience, there is no reason why they will not adopt it. What is envisaged that the relative importance of language should not be lost sight of.
66. We can cite the case of
able to grasp the meaning of what was written in the syllabus because of the language hurdle. This difficulty was compounded by the fact that the shift away from mother-tongue education to Afrikaans and English occurred at a stage when the students did not have adequate proficiency in these two languages.
67. This brings us back to the question as to what is the level of proficiency in various languages that is to be achieved. For the linguistic minorities, there are four languages to be learnt. Some of the persons have argued that this means additional burden on the child. It depends upon, once again, the level of proficiency which is prescribed. Just as the expectations of having the same level of proficiency from the student who has leant all through non Tamil medium as the student who has learnt through Tamil medium is unfair to the former, so also to expect the same level of proficiency in all the four languages to be learnt will be out of place and will really mean burden on the child. Perhaps it is this mode of thinking which led to the argument against the need of four languages for the linguistic minorities. But the solution suggested was to give up the minority language so that the cure is worse than the disease.
68. What the Commissioner would like to argue for is a simple approach which would not jeopordise the fortunes of the students and would not mean additional burden. In this context it must be faced that there are various groups within the linguistic minorities group having their own special problems. For the sake of illustration, we take the example of Karnataka, the linguistic minorities can be classified into three groups on these lines.
1. Linguistic minorities for whom their own mother tongue may be offered as the school language (Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Urdu, Marathi etc.,).
2. Linguistic minorities for whom their own mother tongue may not be offered as their school language, but the regional language is supposed to be their "second mother tongue" (Tulu, Kodagu, and Konkani).
3. Linguistic minorities for whom their mother tongue is not the school language and also not their "second mother tongue" (Lamani, Soliga, Yerava).
69. The special groups where the language spoken is a dialect of Kannada but sufficiently different and with distinct features that differentiate the dialect from Kannada from the standard Kannada have not included
70. In the first group the language is sufficiently developed to allow the student to carry on his studies right up to the university level without having to pick up the regional language except for the use in every day life and for the market. A basic knowledge of the grammar and a working vocabulary of the common day use would be sufficient. With the Central Government now setting up a Commission for grant of affiliation to the central universities the student does not have even to move out of his state to acquire the highest possible knowledge. (What havoc will it cause to the feelings for the loyalty to the state of his birth is not the question which is bothering the authorities now. But that is another story and the consequences will have to be tackled when it is probably too late. Also what happens to the medium which is not offered by the listed universities is another question which may come up later.).
71. In the second group, the beginning can and should be made with the mother tongue but can quickly yield place to the regional language which is in any case not unfamiliar to the student. The aim of the teaching of the mother tongue here is to familiarize him with the basic grammar (the vocabulary being well stocked) and continue the traditions and the customs of the group and pass it on to the next generation. This can be and is being done through oral methods but the creation of the popular literature based on folk lore and folk music will enrich the language as, indeed, it will enrich the cultural mosaic that our country provides. The medium of the instruction at the post elementary level can be the regional language. For such subjects where the technical knowledge is specially important, the transition can begin earlier also. In any case the regional language should be introduced as the subject as early as the third standard, though as recommended earlier in the consensual safeguards and practiced by some of the states, not made a subject of formal examination till standard five.
72. The third group has special problems. The mother tongue can be the only medium at the elementary level. The regional language can be introduced early (say standard three) but it has to be at a very elementary level and not of the same level as prescribed for the students whose mother tongue is the regional language.(I found this to be the case in one of the states. The students studied up to class five through the medium of his mother tongue in a linguistic minority school. In the sixth standard, he switched over to the regional language and was told to read the same books which were prescribed in the regular schools. In other words he had one year to achieve what his class fellows were expected to do in six years.) The level of the regional language will be increased slowly till he achieves the proficiency of sufficient standard by the end of the elementary stage of education. In one of the states the books prescribed for such students was of two standards lower than other students but in our view, special bridge course to expedite the learning of the language should be developed. This will mean extra effort but it will be justified.
73. In discussing the achievement levels of the languages, the question of the link language, Hindi is to be considered as a separate entity. Similarly, English is to be considered as a separate identity.
74. So far as Hindi is concerned, the expectations is that this will be used as a link language for contact with the people from other states. There was probably a thought that Hindi may replace English as a language for Higher Education all over but, presently, this is only a dream and the only purpose of learning the language is for common day use. The level of competence to be achieved is to be limited to learning of grammar and picking up enough vocabulary to interact with other persons. Naturally the study of literature, prose and poetry, is not of much relevance except as means of contextualised learning.
75. In contrast to Hindi, the position of
English presents a different and difficult preposition. English was not in the
run when the linguistic rights for the linguistic minorities were decided and
responsibilities listed. However, today, English has a major role in
decision-making regarding language choice in education. English is replacing
the mother tongue and the regional language. Nearly 7 states in the country
have opted for the introduction of English from the
earliest stage, even along with the mother tongue of the student.
When the language policy was debated in
76. The general purpose of learning a language is to be able to express one’s ideas properly, concisely and accurately. The oral communications are, in any case; learnt through contacts starting with the family and going on to the relations, friends, acquaintances and the market. But the formal learning of language in the school leads to the expression of ideas in writing. The other purpose of learning the language is to appreciate the nuances of the writings of more learned persons. Thus the two fold basic objectives of learning the language are first to communicate our ideas and secondly to appreciate ideas of others.
77. The learning of the first language comes naturally for the mother tongue. The nuances of the language can only be learnt when these are daily practiced amidst the people who habitually use that language in every day life. This process is difficult when the second language is learnt but then the objective of learning the second language us completely different. Let us examine it in some details.
78. The language learning has four important objectives. They are comprehension, expression, appreciation, and creativity. Whenever any language is learnt, the comprehension is the first objective. To know what is being said or what is written is vital for acquisition of the language. The oral comprehension can, in itself, be a goal. As remarked earlier for the mother tongue, it comes naturally but for second (which term includes every non mother tongue language) it has to be deliberately acquired. Comprehension of the language in its written form is a formal process for all languages (mother tongue or other). This is where the school plays an important part. Obviously if the language has already been acquired orally, the process of comprehension of written word is easier. This is why the educationists insist that the first formal transfer to the comprehension of the written form should be through mother tongue. There is no doubt that the second language can also be simultaneously acquired orally and in written form but the process is more difficult and more time consuming. it may also be frustrating for the child to learn the unfamiliar word when he has always been associating another word with the object.
79. The expression here means the ability to pass on one's ideas to another person who can comprehend that language. Transition to expression is also easier for the mother tongue in that it has been a slow but persistent effort routinely reinforced. The child picks up most of his vocabulary by the time he is three years old. It is strengthened when he goes to the school and learns the formal character of the language by learning about grammar, the equivalence of words and the literary form of the language. It may be mentioned that despite all the emphasis that is laid on use of simpler language in prose, the literary form has always been different in all the languages.
80. Can the expression come up naturally in the second language? To the extent that even the parents themselves are not using it as the first language, this is difficult. There will always be a gap even if the parents are always using the second language in interacting with the child. There are instances when the child does not comprehend his mother tongue as it is deliberately discouraged by the guardians but even so, the second language still lacks that spontaneity that comes with the mother tongue.
81. The third aspect of the language learning is appreciation. To know the difference between two expressions and to differentiate the subtle difference between them is an important part of the language learning. This has to be acquired for all the languages including the mother tongue. As stated earlier, the literary form is different from the spoken form. The writer tries to express himself in a style that is special to him. He conveys and attempts to convey the ideas some times directly and some times indirectly. His emphasis changes from one idea to another, He seeks to reinforce the ideas which, he feels, are important for what he wants to convey. To understand all this a formal study under an experienced hand is necessary. In the language learning, the study of the literature is meant for this purpose.
82. The last part of the language learning is the creativity. This is the ability to modify the language to suit the requirements of the situation either by play on the words or by other means. It is not customary to teach this aspect at the school and probably, it does not come naturally to every one using that language. In other words this is an aspect which can only come with time, practice and, most of all, inclination.
83. The objective of teaching of second language is usually two fold i.e. comprehension and expression. This is especially true of the language to be used for the acquisition of knowledge which is not available in one's own language or for the sake of business and interaction with another person. The acquisition of Hindi by the residents of the non Hindi states is essentially for this purpose. The idea is only to be able to share the same platform with the other person. It was envisaged at one stage that Hindi will acquire the status of the sole official language for the Union purposes and that acquisition of Hindi will be from that angle. This idea has since been given up except in the official papers and which the Department of Official Language in the Government of India, heroically but increasingly frustratingly, continues to work for. The Department even goes to the extent of instituting awards for use of Hindi in the office work for those whose mother tongue is Hindi and who are working in the offices situated in the Hindi areas. But that is another story.
84. The acquisition of English is mainly for the continuation of studies in the higher levels. The bulk of the scientific and technical knowledge is available in English and can be acquired only in that language. The interaction at this level is only in English and thus its acquisition is a must both for comprehension and expression. It is also more difficult in that the grammatical construction is different from the Indian languages. Picking up of special vocabulary is, obviously, much more important and time consuming.
85. There is another aspect of learning English. It is the language of business and much of administration. To that extent it requires more accomplishment than Hindi, the link language.
86. But it must be appreciated that neither for Hindi for non Hindi states nor for English for the entire country the third aspect of the language learning viz. appreciation is essential part of the learning the language. There may be individuals who would be interested in such a use of the language but the bulk of the students will not be interested in this. In any case, those who are interested, the methodology would be the same which they have acquired in the learning of the mother tongue. It need not be a part of the syllabus.
87. In the preceding paragraphs, lies the rationale of the language planning. It is sufficient to give the outlines of the syllabus which will be in accordance with what has been stated above. This will also mean modification of the three language formula which was adopted in the sixties of the last century and continues to be observed more in breach than in observance. It takes into account the minority languages also which was not under consideration when the three language formula was formulated. At that time its importance was not appreciated and which had to be attended to , subsequently, in piecemeal fashion.
88. It must be restated that the three language formula is relevant to the upper primary level of education (i.e. class VI onwards). The general form of the three language formula will be the same as at present (shorn of its national integration fervour) viz. the Regional Language/ mother tongue as the first language, Hindi as the second language and English as the third language. For the linguistic minorities, the formula should be changed by substituting Regional language as the second language in place of Hindi. So far as Hindi is concerned, this works fine if the regional language is Hindi. If this is not the case, it is proposed that there can be a composite course for Hindi and the Regional language. The more difficult part is the implementation of the formula in the Hindi speaking areas and where Hindi is also the mother tongue of the student, What should be the third language? There is no incentive to learn one. Most of the students go in for Sanskrit even though it may be more difficult than other languages. Still, to achieve some sort of parity across the states, it will be compulsory for the student to acquire another Indian language. (Note that the insistence or preference for south Indian language is dropped) He can however, have the option of composite course for acquiring two languages.
89. There is an increasing number of schools which have English as the medium of instruction. This is unfortunate but the fact has to be accepted. For such schools the normal three languages formula can be modified to mean English as the first language, Regional Language as the second language and Hindi as the third. For the linguistic minorities, there can be composite courses where mother tongue can be combined with Regional Language or Hindi as per the inclination of the student. The students in the Hindi speaking area who have Hindi as the mother tongue must acquire one or two languages of their choice as the third language(s).
90. Thus there will be 300 marks for the language papers English and one more language carrying 100 marks each while the third languages singly may have 100 marks and for the composite course 50. The fourth language (as part of the composite course) will have 50 marks.
91. The three language formula is essentially for the middle level of education. This can be envisaged for the entire school period as follows.
|
Language |
Class |
Remarks |
|
Mother Tongue |
I to X |
|
|
Regional language |
III to XII |
But to be examination paper from class V |
|
Hindi |
III to X |
But to be examination paper from class V |
|
English |
VI to X |
|
92. In the Hindi speaking states, the formulation will obviously be modified, especially if Hindi is also the mother tongue.
|
Language |
Class |
Remarks |
|
Hindi |
I to X |
|
|
English |
III to XII |
But to be examination paper from class V |
|
Other MIL |
VI to X |
|
93. If the medium beyond the school level (i.e. class XII) is contemplated as the regional language, it can be one of the subjects in class XI and XII in addition to English. But it can be given up if English is to be the subsequent medium.
94. It is expected that if the mother tongue is not developed to that extent that it can be a subject up to class X then it can be left out at an appropriate state. The Regional Language can be started from class III and can be used as a medium from class V.
Isolated groups
95. There are many isolated groups of the linguistic minorities which are in so small a number that opening up of the schools for them is not practical. They belong to a wider group which is important but in their own area their strength is small so that a regular movement to keep up their culture and customs are under severe constraints. It is doubtful if the State Governments can do much to help them except by way of having a scheme to assist them in organization of periodical functions. It is for the groups to take up the challenge and lead their young compatriots for the retention of the cultural values.
96. Most of the above remarks apply to the
use of the minority languages for educational purposes but the safeguards go
much beyond it. The framers of the Constitution wanted the administration to be
close to the people and so wanted it to be carried on through their languages.
In
97. In
98. But this phenomenon is
not unique to
99. In
ownership and tenancy but it was, once again,
in a simple form. The British, introduced the formal unified system of keeping
records. They introduced English in the record keeping at the higher level but
even they left the local land records to be kept in the local languages. Their
provinces were not formed on the basis of language and hence they used what
ever language was prevalent in a particular
area. The linguistic reorganizations pf the states introduced some
complications in that the local languages were different from the state
languages. But it was agreed that records will be kept in the languages locally
prevalent. For example the revenue records of some talukas in
100. It will be worthwhile to mention that the Election Commission has ordered that in certain constituencies, the electoral rolls should be maintained in the minority language also besides the official or the regional language. A list of such constituencies can be seen at the website of the Election Commission.
101. Let us consider other aspects. The point is whether there is a continued need for the important notices etc. to be available in the minority languages. The arguments run that more and more citizens of a state are well versed in the official (or the regional language) of the State. Or they can easily approach some one who knows that language. Hence there is no need to translate and publish the important orders etc. in any but the official language (and that includes English also). There are no facilities for such translation and it would be difficult to make such arrangements.
102. Almost identical are the arguments about the receipt of the applications and representations in any but the official languages. An additional point is that the applications etc. are written by professional petition writers who convert whatever the applicant wants to communicate in the officially accepted style and language. Not withstanding the provisions of the Constitution, it is the claim of several of the State Governments that no representations are received in the minority languages. It is more likely that such representations and applications are discouraged as indeed was alleged by some persons in Tamil Nadu and elsewhere. Even where it is admitted that representations are received in local languages, it is said that the replies are sent in English or the regional language. A variety of reasons, which appear to be more of excuses rather than explanations, are given such as lack of appropriate machinery, lack of equipment whereas actually it is lack of will.
103. It would be recalled
that last year the Government of Karnataka issued an orders stating that
important notices etc. should be issued in the minority languages. The orders
had to be withdrawn as there were widespread protests by the Kannada groups
including the Kannada Sahitya Samiti who thought that these orders will
adversely effect the development of the Kannada language. It was never
explained how this would occur. It was also forgotten that out of 6,00,00,000
Kanagadigas, 2,00,00,000 live outside Karnataka. If they were subject to the
same mindless protests, Kannada would actually be the loser and not the winner.
The orders had to be withdrawn under the pressure of these scholars and
protagonists of Kannada. Such chauvinists are present every where especially in
the
104. But the point remains that so far as a substantial number of people desire and describe a certain language to be their mother tongue, their wishes should be respected and they be given the same treatment as other residents of the state. The Constitution gives them these rights and they should be respected. For example, the representations should be accepted and arrangements made to reply to them in the same language. If there are any difficulties, they should be removed. No State Government has stated any cogent reasons for such refusal. Such difficulties as have been pointed out can be solved by a strong will and some funds. Amidst so many welfare schemes to please some sections or the other of the people, the scheme to reply in the language of the petitions would be the cheapest one. Same goes for the publication of the notices etc. in the minority languages. This argument can not be accepted that some other person knows the Official Language. Our aim is that every one should be educated. Otherwise there was a time in Manipur when it was enough for one person to know Manipuri. There was no need for any one to read. Do we desire such a situation. The same argument can be given against the Official Language that some one or other will be knowing English.
105. There is no doubt that there are circumstances which keep influencing the culture of a community in constant touch with another community. The behaviour pattern changes, the customs undergo a change, the dress code changes and the language is no exception. But these changes are effective if they come of own accord and not if they are forced. The force merely makes the society more resistant to the changes sought to be achieved. Earning of goodwill is, at any given time, more important than scoring a point. It is hoped that, in the true spirit of democracy, the wishes of the linguistic minorities will be given due respect. This only would make the linguistic minorities feel secure and work, along with their brothers and sisters from the majority language group, for the betterment of the State.
106. A necessary corollary
of providing the safeguards is that the communities for whom the safeguards are
meant are aware of the concessions available to them. Perhaps even more
important is that the concessions should be known to the officers who
administer these safeguards. It has been the endeavour of the Commissioner that
the orders regarding the safeguards should be codified, compiled and published.
Though it was being insisted that these pamphlets should be available to the
linguistic minorities, it appears that the official machinery is more in need
of this information. It has been the experience of the Commissioner that very
often the safeguards are considered to be the concern of the minority welfare
department and/ or of the education department whereas this should be the
concern of the entire administration and of all the officers posted in such
areas where the linguistic minorities reside in a large number. To cite an
instance, it is the duty of the persons in charge of the buses to see that
their destinations are written in majority as well as minority languages. This
is plain information to the clients rather than the dictates of the higher
authorities. I have seen the
07. It is the ardent wish of the Commissioner that the Indian attitude of live and let live will govern all walks of life, including languages, in our ancient and venerable land.
108. With these remarks, we now present the position of the implementation of the safeguards provided for the linguistic minorities base on the replies received from them, on the tour notes and information received otherwise.
2.
Arunachal Pradesh
1. As in the previous years, this year also, Arunachal Pradesh has said that no language has been recognized as a minority language. Therefore, no question has been answered. Earlier also attention of the Government has been drawn to this but it does not appear that attention has been paid to it.
2. In fact the position is not all that bad. In the answer for the Fortieth Report, it has been said that students of the classes VI to VIII are being taught third language. Five languages of the State viz. Adi, Apatani, Bhoti, Khampti and Nishi, which are spoken by the principal tribes have been adopted as the third language. It was hoped that further progress about this will be intimated but nothing has been said this time.
3. The State Government will have to be requested once again that they should pay more attention to the development of the tribal languages.
3.
1.
2. Any way the reply has been received. As stated last year, the State is not low in the list of those who are implementing the safeguards. This will be borne out by the analysis which is given below though there are gaps.
3. The linguistic profile has not been given on the grounds that it is not available for 2001 census. We can get an idea by studying the 1991 census to some approximate values. The total population in 1991 was 2,24,14,322. In that census the percentage was as follows –
|
Languages |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Assamese |
1,29,58,088 |
57.81 |
|
Bengali |
48,56,532 |
21.67 |
|
Bodo |
11,84,569 |
5.28 |
|
Hindi |
10,35,474 |
4.62 |
|
Mishing |
3,81,562 |
1.70 |
|
Karbi |
3,55,032 |
1.58 |
|
Dimasa |
84,654 |
0.38 |
4. Dimasa is mentioned because of the concentration of its speakers in a particular area.
5. Assamese is the official language. Bodo can be used as associate official language in the districts of Kokrajhar, Nalbari and also Udalguri sub division for all or any of the official purposes declared by the Government. The purposes have not been specified. Bengali is used for administrative and other official purposes up to the district level in the districts in the Barak valley.
6. In respects of the question whether the important rules, etc. are being published in the minority languages, the answer says that this is being done in certain areas. But no details have been given.
7. It is said that petitions have been received from the linguistic minorities in the minority languages and also replied to in some cases. Once again, the details have not been given.
8. It is said that linguistic minorities are not given any special treatment for recognition or registration of their institutions. But it is said that there are applications for recognition. The details are as follows –
|
Language |
Applied |
Sanctioned |
Pending |
|
Bengali |
93 |
25 |
68 |
|
Bodo |
62 |
17 |
45 |
|
Hindi |
5 |
0 |
5 |
9. The number of pending cases is very large. There should be some specific reasons for which these applications are not being disposed off. These may kindly be indicated. Special drive for taking a decision on recognition or otherwise should be taken. Other languages Manipuri, Mishing, Karbi, Dimasa, Hmar, Nepali are not mentioned.
10. It is said that there is no grants in aid system. Hence no schools have been given such grants. This is not fair. It is admitted that the Government effort alone can overcome the problem of univeralisation of education. Local effort is also required, especially in the remote areas. How the public cooperation is got needs to be described.
11. It is said that that lower primary stage (or what we have been calling primary stage) is from class I to IV and the upper primary from class V to VII. It is said that there are orders for teaching in mother tongue should be provided if there are ten students in a class or 40 in the school. It is remarked that regional language is taught from the lower primary stage but the class from which it is started is not mentioned. The information about the schools, students and teachers is given for the year 2002 -03 and not 2003 – 04 which is period covered by this report. As this information was not included in the previous Report, it is being included here and is as follows–
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Bengali |
3,813 |
6,05,625 |
7,626 |
|
Bodo |
1,713 |
1,99,680 |
3,426 |
|
Manipuri |
185 |
23,250 |
370 |
|
Hindi |
78 |
68,390 |
156 |
|
Garo |
38 |
1,63,012 |
76 |
|
Hmar |
5 |
3,235 |
10 |
|
Nepali |
5 |
1,818 |
10 |
12. Apparently, there is a mistake somewhere. There can not be 3,235 students in five primary schools for Hmar which also gives a ratio of 323 students to a teacher. This should be checked and correct figures reported. For Hindi the ration is 1: 438, which is alarming once again. The ratio for Nepali is less but still too high for it to be correct. But if it is, then it needs immediate action on the part of the State Government. The situation in other languages is also bad as it is 1 :79 for Bengali; 1 : 63 for Manipuri; 1 : 58 for Bodo. But still it is very high compared with the normal whereas it should be lower than normal for the minority languages. The figures for Garo is obviously a typing mistake but there is no way to cross check.
13. In the upper primary stage, the information is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Bengali |
994 |
8,41,685 |
5,982 |
|
Bodo |
215 |
2,75,835 |
1,075 |
|
Manipuri |
68 |
26,950 |
408 |
|
Hindi |
14 |
39,966 |
84 |
|
Garo |
6 |
21,490 |
30 |
|
Hmar |
2 |
3,775 |
18 |
|
Nepali |
3 |
2,668 |
18 |
14. Once again the teacher student ration
is disturbing. It is 141 students to one teacher in Bengali; 257 for Bodo; 66
for Manipuri; 276 for Hmar; 148 for Nepali; and 476 for Hindi. As remarked
earlier Garo figures appear to be totally incorrect.
15. For the secondary education, (class VIII to X), Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Hindi and English are said to be medium. There should be 15 students in a class or 45 in a school. All these languages are used by the Board of Secondary Education and question papers are set in them. The information about the number of schools, students and teachers is said to be enclosed but is not there so that it is not possible to give that information.
16. Advance registers are being maintained in the primary and the secondary schools. The number is given as 5,837 for primary and 230 for secondary.
17. The Three Language Formula is being
implemented with mother tongue/ regional language as the first language. Any
language from the list - Bodo, Bengali,
Sanskrit, Hindi, Assamese is the second language. Third language is not
mentioned but obviously, it is English. It is said that English is introduced
from primary stage but the class is not mentioned. The Formula should have
carried a rider that those who have mother tongue as first language will have
Assamese as the second language. Further what will happen to Hindi in that case
(unless it is the mother tongue). A solution is the introduction of composite
courses as in
18. It is admitted that there is shortage
of teachers. We have already seen that above. But then it is specified that
detailed information is not available. It is also added that there is shortage
of science teachers in Bodo language. It is stated that “No shortage of
teachers is reported from other medium”. Now that is a contradiction. May be it
is more than that. The number of posts
sanctioned and filled up is also not available. It is said that vacancies will
be filled up after the lifting of the ban on recruitment by the State Government.
There is a drive for universalisation of education and it has been repeatedly
said that there is no shortage of money for that. It is therefore, surprising
that there is a ban on recruitment of teachers. It is seen from some other
states that while there is a general ban but it has been lifted for teachers.
It is hoped that
19. About training of the teachers, it is said that training facilities at secondary level are common for all teachers irrespective of the medium of instruction. However, at the primary stage, there are training facilities for Bengali and Bodo language teachers at Kokrajhar BTC for Bodo language teachers and DIET Udarband for Bengali. Number of persons trained is said to be 125 for Bodo; 50 for Bengali; 36 for Hmar and 10 for Manipuri. which year these figure relate to is not specified. Where Hmar/ Manipuri teachers were trained in not mentioned.
20. All textbooks are said to be available in plenty and reach the students in time. They are prepared and published by State Council for Education Research and Training or the Directorate. No details are given.
21. No Academies have been set up. But it is said that the Government have taken a decision to give financial assistance to venture schools including linguistic minority schools on the basis of seniority and need basis. Venture school is a new term. Is it any way connected to venture
capital. Venture capital is a means to get profits out of a scheme executed by others. Will the schools mean same thing to the Government? One would like to know. The details of the scheme will have to be seen before it can be commented upon.
22. English and Assamese are the medium of examination for recruitment to the state services. Copy of orders dated September 12, 1990 are enclosed, which presumably are still in force that a candidate can offer Alternative English in place of Assamese for the post of the lower division clerk in the Secretariat or the office of the Heads of Departments. In this case he has to pass the examination in Assamese in his probation period or a period specified by the State Government. There are no domiciliary restrictions.
23. It is said that a committee has been set up at the state level for the review of the implementation of safeguards and a copy of the notification is enclosed. But there is no such enclosure. It is not informed what the composition of the committee is nor whether it has met or not.
24. At the district level, District Inspector of Schools in respect of the secondary education and District Elementary Education Officer in respect of the primary education is in charge of this work. Here also a committee is said to be set up but its composition is not intimated. Nor is there information about the meetings of such committees.
25. There is a Minority Commission in the State but no further details are available. The interest was only to know whether the work relating to linguistic minorities is given to it.
26. It is said that all government policies are published through Directorate of Information and Public Relations but there is no specific reply whether any pamphlets for the linguistic minorities has been issued. It is remarked that information is not readily available. But the fact is that the concerned department should be the first to know about it.
27. About the grievances, it is said that Commissioner and Secretary of the Department is the person who would receive the complaints, if any, at the State level. At the District level, Deputy Commissioner will receive them. But there is no specific reply if there are grievances or not and if there are, of what type are they.
28. As was remarked in the
last Report, a lot is being done for the linguistic minorities in
4. Andhra Pradesh
The population of Andhra Pradesh as per the census
2001 is 7,62,10,007 while it was 6,65,08,008 as per the census 1991. The
languages spoken by more than one percent of the people are as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Telugu |
6,41,94,236 |
84-77 |
|
Urdu |
63,30,822 |
8-36 |
|
Hindi |
20,97,653 |
2-77 |
|
Tamil |
2,55,721 |
1-13 |
2. There are no districts in the State where more than 60 % of the people speak a minority language. But a list of the areas where the more than 15 % of the people speak minority language Urdu is given. It has the names of tahsils and towns in 13 districts. The list does not include the areas where Kannada, Tamil, Marathi and Oriya are spoken by more than 15 % of the population. The reasons for not giving the information about these is not known.The complete list, in which areas of languages other than Urdu are also given, may be seen on our website.
3. The official language of
the State is Telugu but Urdu has also been recognized as the official language
of thirteen districts. These districts are –
4. It has
been stated that the important rules./ regulations etc. are published in the
minority languages but no details have been given n this count. It is,
therefore, not clear if it is said for Urdu only or applies to other languages
also.
5. It has
been intimated that the representations are received in the minority languages
and replied to also in that language.
6. There
are separate rules for the registration of the minority institutes.They have
been given some concessions. Generally in other institutes the recruitment is
as per the roster but the minority institutes are exempted from this when the
recruitment is of a person belonging to that community. The wordings make it
appear that this is only for the religious minorities.The Government is
requested to clarify the position. In fact, it should be clarified that these
rules also apply to the linguistic minority institutes. How many institutes
have been so registered has not been specified.
7. The
primary stage of education is from class I
to V and upper primary stage of class VI and VII. It is stated that
instructions are given in Telugu, Urdu and Hindi. This appears be an oversight since in the table, information has been given about
other languages also. There should be a minimum of ten students or a minimum of
30 students in the school. In the secondary schools, there should be at least
45 students. In the linguistic minority schools, the regional language is
taught from class VI.
The
following schools are said to be functioning in the primary education.
|
Language |
Primary Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
2,378 |
2,79,779 |
8,003 |
|
Oriya |
97 |
11,164 |
309 |
|
Tamil |
69 |
7,441 |
252 |
|
Kannada |
60 |
11,261 |
197 |
|
Hindi |
38 |
10,198 |
182 |
|
Marathi |
31 |
4,396 |
143 |
|
Gujarati |
1 |
661 |
10 |
8. Class
VIII to X are included in the secondary
education. Telugu, English, Hindi, Urdu and Oriya are the media of instruction.
There should be a minimum of 45 students for this. The Board of Secondary
Education prepares the question papers in Telugu, English and Hindi. Probably
they are not prepared in Tamil and Oriya. when the instructions are imparted in
these languages, the question papers should also be prepared in them. It will
be clear from the table given below that there are about four thousand students
in Oriya and about 3,300 in Tamil. This is not a small number and the question
papers can be prepared in them. The information about the secondary education
is as follows -
|
Language |
Primary Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
191 |
68,214 |
2,474 |
|
Oriya |
3 |
3,979 |
63 |
|
Tamil |
5 |
3,283 |
83 |
|
Kannada |
4 |
2,021 |
64 |
|
Hindi |
25 |
7,636 |
309 |
|
Marathi |
3 |
2,082 |
57 |
9. It is stated that in both the primary and secondary schools, the registers for advance registration are being maintained but the number is not indicated.
10. In the Three Language Formula, mother tongue is considered to be the first language. The second language is Telugu for the non Telugu students. Those, who have the first language as Telugu, can choose from amongst Urdu, Hindi, Oriya, Tamil and Kannada. The third language is English which is taught from class V.
11. The number of
teachers has been given district wise, language wise and stage wise. A brief
view of this is as follows –
|
Language |
Primary |
Upper Primary |
Others |
||
|
Exclusive |
Others |
Exclusive |
Others |
|
|
|
Urdu |
1542 |
2931 |
254 |
2120 |
3131 |
|
Oriya |
73 |
169 |
25 |
|
74 |
|
Tamil |
51 |
171 |
5 |
44 |
172 |
|
Kannada |
40 |
105 |
11 |
52 |
71 |
|
Hindi |
10 |
59 |
8 |
38 |
412 |
|
Marathi |
18 |
45 |
12 |
60 |
77 |
|
Gujarati |
|
|
|
|
10 |
|
Bengali |
1 |
27 |
|
5 |
3 |
2. It has been reported that trained
teachers are available at the primary and the secondary level. for the training
of Urdu teachers, parallel sections are run in nine teachers training institutes. These nine
institutions are located in
13. It is reported that textbooks are available in sufficient number.
These books are printed in the Government Textbooks Press. Who is the publisher
of these books is not specified.
14. Urdu and
15. It appears that
16. There is no scheme for assistance to the non official institutions
or individuals for development of languages.
17. For the recruitment to the Government services, Telugu, Urdu and
English are the media of examination. It has been stated that knowledge of
Telugu is pre requisite for entry into service. The standard should be
equivalent to the secondary stage of education. About the residential
restrictions, it is said that the restrictions are as per the six point orders.
The details of the six point orders are not known. It is urged that information
about this should be furnished.
18.
Minority Commission has been set up in the State and it is also having the
responsibility of looking after the monitoring of the safeguards for the
linguistic minorities. In reply to the question on the review of the safeguards
for the linguistic minorities, it is informed that the Minority Commission at
the State level and the District Minorities Welfare Officer at the district
level are doing this job. There is no committee constituted at the district
level also. No details have been given when the Minority Commission met and
what was the action taken by it about the linguistic minorities. It is hoped
that a report of the review done by them will be sent to the Commissioner for
his information.
19. It has
been intimated that linguistic minorities are informed about their rights
through the public notifications but no pamphlets have been prepared. It is
hoped that the orders regarding the linguistic minorities will be collected at
one place and published. This will not only enable the linguistic minorities
about their rights but the
officers will also know about their responsibility.
20. Deputy
Director (Minorities), who sits in the office of the Commissioner School
Education, has been appointed as the Nodal Officer.
21. Andhra Pradesh is doing
sufficiently well for the linguistic minorities. But it a matter of surprise
that for the reply to the questionnaire for the forty second Report, the entire
emphasis is on Urdu. Nothing has been mentioned about other languages though
the tables of statistics reflect the action being taken for them. The
information given by the Education Department is adequate perhaps because the
Nodal Officer belongs to that department. No information has been sent about
the academies. The names of the tahsils where strength of the linguistic
minorities is more than fifteen percent has not been sent (except for Urdu).
The reply regarding the representations received is also in the same position.
The annual Report of the Minorities Commission has also not been sent which
could have revealed how they are safeguarding the interests of the linguistic
minorities. The Commissioner has been recommending that the review should be
done by the Chief Secretary so that the activities of all the departments can
be reviewed. It is difficult to understand how the Minority Commission will
monitor the activities of the departments. Neither will the Deputy Director in
the Directorate of Education be able to do this job which is not a reflection
on his ability but is due to the format of the structure.
22. Even
so the action being taken by Andhra Pradesh can not be ranked as lowly.
5. Orissa
Population of Orissa according to 1991 census is 3,16,59,736. The
principal language Oriya is spoken by 82.75 % of people. The position of the minority languages is as
follows –
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Hindi |
7,59,016 |
2-40 |
|
Telugu |
66,500 |
2-10 |
|
Santhali |
6,61,849 |
2-09 |
|
Kui |
6,36,005 |
2-01 |
|
Urdu |
5,02,102 |
1-59 |
2. It is
said that there are no areas where the linguistic minorities are more than 60 %
of the population. The areas with more than 15 % are given as Phulbani – Kui (31%), Mayurbhanj
– Santhali (24 %) and Sundargarh – Sadri (14 %). It should be mentioned that
the Census Commissioner considers Sadri to be a sub language of Hindi.
3. Here the interpretation of 'area' is taken to mean a district
whereas the reference is to a tahsil or a town area. If this is adopted as the
definition of the area, then there are many areas of this type. This includes
areas for Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, Ho, Kisan, Kondh, Sabar etc. The details
are given on our website.
4. Oriya and English are the official languages. No minority language
has been declared as official language for any purpose. The rules, regulations
or the notices are not published in the minority languages. It is also said
that no representations or applications are received in the minority languages
and the question of reply in these languages does not arise.
5. In the question related to the recognition of the linguistic
minority institutions, information has been given about the madarasas.
According to this, a committee has been constituted at state level which considers
the applications. The State Madarasa Council accordingly grants recognition. A
total of 140 madarasas have been granted recognition out of which 137 are up to
class VII and 3 are secondary schools.
6. So far as is known, the madarasas generally impart religious
instructions and according to the Central Government scheme teachers are
appointed to give instruction in Mathematics and English. In such a situation,
the mention of three secondary schools does not appear to be correct. The
situation should be clarified from the State Government.
7. It is
said that 43 schools for Urdu have applied for recognition. All the
applications are pending. Similarly, there is one application from Bengali
which is pending. This is also the situation with grant in aid. Here also all
applications are pending.
8. In the
primary education, instructions are imparted through Hindi, Telugu, Bengali and
Gujarati. Whereas the requirement for normal school is 40 students, 20 are
considered to be sufficient number for the minority language schools. Oriya is
taught from class one in these minority language schools also.
9. The
information about the schools, students and teachers at the elementary
education level for the year 2003 – 04 is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
137 |
11,000 |
223 |
|
Telugu |
202 |
17,000 |
438 |
Hindi |
16 |
4,000 |
84 |
|
Gujarati |
3 |
200 |
7 |
|
Bengali |
11 |
1500 |
24 |
10. In
fact, these statistics are the same as were sent last year except for Urdu. In
Urdu the number of schools is given as 137 instead of 119. Similarly the number
of students was 8,000 and of teachers 163. It was also stated that the round
figures in thousands raises doubts whether the statistics are being compiled
actually. In between, some efforts have been done and information obtained from
21 educational districts. Information available is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Telugu |
7 |
808 |
20 |
|
Bengali |
1 |
38 |
2 |
|
Hindi |
10 |
2,605 |
61 |
|
Urdu |
56 |
3,846 |
98 |
11.
Information is still to be received from 34 educational districts.
12. It has
to be mentioned that though Kui speakers are 31 % in Phulbani district, there
is no action for using it at the primary education level. similarly nothing has
been mentioned about other languages.
13.
Secondary education is from class VIII to X. Urdu, English, Bengali, Telugu,
Hindi and Oriya are said to be the media of instruction. For this, only for the
madarasas, the strength is fixed at twenty. What are the norms for other
schools is not mentioned. The replies can be written in the above mentioned
languages but the question papers are only in Oriya and English. It is said
that the number of examinees is very small in other languages and question
papers can not be prepared in them.
14. For secondary education, three schools
for Urdu have been stated to be there which have 14 teachers and about 300
students between them. Two for Hindi and one for Telugu are also listed. The
number of students or teachers has not been mentioned. It appears that this
information is also incomplete.
15. It is said that the registers for advance registration are not
maintained.
16. In the Three Language Formula at the secondary stage, the first
language is said to be Oriya, Bengali, Telugu, Urdu and Hindi. The second
language can be English or Hindi. The third language can be Hindi, English,
Oriya or Persian. English is taught from class II.
17. In respect of availability of teachers, the information is given in
respect of madarasas only where the number of teachers is said to be
sufficient.
18. It is said that 47 teachers were trained in the year 2003 – 04.
They all appear to be Urdu teachers because the mention is made only of
19. It is reported that textbooks are available. It is also said that
20,000 Telugu books have been received from Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Whether they have been distributed, has not been stated.
20. For promotion of languages
21. Oriya
and English are the only media for examination for recruitment.
22. The
responsibility for implementation of safeguards is with the Home Department.
Any problems which are brought to their notice are acted upon. The name of the
Nodal Officer has not been given. Earlier the Additional Secretary in the Home
Department was designated as the Nodal Officer.
23. It has
been intimated that the proposal to give responsibility at the district level
is under consideration. The setting up of committee at state level is also to
be said to be under consideration.
24. No
minority commission has been set up in Orissa. There is no practice of
pamphlets and it is said that no complaints were received.
25.
To take up with the last point first,
when the commissioner visited Orissa, there were complaints galore. The representations
together with a note regarding the visit were sent to the Government of Orissa.
Some of the complaints were intimated to the Secretary, Education during a
meeting also. At least cognizance of these representations taken and a
statement that there are no complaints is unfair. In many cases the parties
have gone to courts and obtained interim orders. These would also be known to
the authorities. The complaints and demands have been made to various
authorities including the Deputy Speaker of the Vidhan Sabha and Education
Secretary.
26. Some
of the complaints are listed below.
1. The major complaint is about the shortage of teachers. It has been
stated that no Telugu teacher has been recruited since 1978. In Berhampur, it
was said that many Telugu schools are closing down as a result. Out of 42
sanctioned posts only 18 are filled up at present. Only eight upper primary
schools are functioning presently. In Parlakhemundi constituency sixty percent
of the people speak Telugu but only five
schools are operating in the area.
2. For Urdu, in most of the schools, the number of teachers were much
less than required. In the
3. Telugu teachers have been posted in tribal schools. The teachers do not know the tribal language and
the students can not follow the Telugu language or even Oriya.
4. Again in Berhampur Commissioner was told that the shortage of
teachers is in exclusive as well as parallel Telugu medium schools The
calculations are made on the basis of one teacher for 40 students and there is
no relaxation for the linguistic minorities. In Government Girls High School
Berhampur, there were 325 students but only four teachers, and one of them is
going to retire shortly.
5. On April 17, 2003 orders were issued that Swechhi Sevi Shiksha
Sahayaks should be appointed but no action has been taken. It was explained by
the officers of the education department that there were subsequent orders
(dated 23.09.2004) saying that the appointments are to be made as per the 80
point roster. It s interpreted to say that the language teachers (for Telugu)
can not be recruited separately. But this does not appear to be the case from
the letter under consideration.
Second
aspect of the problem is that if we need Telugu teachers, how can we recruit
Oriya teachers. Does one recruit Geography teachers if the intention is to
select a Science teacher merely because the Geography teacher is higher in the
merit list than the Science teacher? The only solution is that the number of
Telugu teachers, Urdu teachers etc. should be determined and a suitable number
of posts be earmarked for them. The merit list, if and when prepared, should be
separately for these teachers so that the posts can be filled up.
6. Another complaint is that
despite repeated instructions that test in Oriya is to be passed by Telugu
teachers in a period of three years after joining, the teachers are not being
appointed due to their not passing the Oriya language test before joining.
7. It is also demanded that Oriya teachers posted in Telugu schools
should be withdrawn and Telugu teachers posted in their place.
8. It was stated that there was an agreement between Orissa and Andhra
Pradesh that they would train 60 teachers of each other annually. This has not
been done since year 2000. Sixty teachers were trained in 1999. But it is a
matter of regret that they have not been able to get a job with the Government
of Orissa. The reason given was that they did not have a formal certificate of
knowledge of Oriya.
It is
noted that in 1992 orders were issued by the State Government (N0. 15800/E
dated 30.3.92) that Shiksha Karmis should be
appointed in the linguistic minority areas in the primary schools and
that, if trained hands were not available, they can be appointed subject to
their getting the requisite qualifications in three years. Possibly such
provision may have to be made so long as trained hands are not available.
9. Talking further about the shortage of teachers there is no
headmaster in Sayeed Seminary School Cuttack as the post is vacant and, for
teachers, out of 24 posts, only 14 have been approved by the Government.. It
was informed that
10. The second aspect of the complaints is about the lack of training
of teachers. it is stated that Parlakhemundi Teachers' Training School for
Telugu teachers has been closed down in 1976. As a result Telugu teachers are
not available and Telugu schools have been closed down. Teachers trained in
Andhra Pradesh have not been absorbed on flimsy grounds.
11. It was felt that it was necessary that the teachers should be sent
to orientation programmes for teaching aids for teaching in Urdu and through
Urdu. There was a one time effort when 80 teachers were trained by NCERT. There
was an Urdu section in the training schools which trained persons for primary
schools i.e. class I to V. The training material, however. was not in Urdu.
12. The third set of complaints relates to the availability of
textbooks. It was found in
13. It was also observed that in the absence of supplied books or the
list of approved books, the books from various agencies was being used. The
book used for primer was the one published by 'Anjuman Himayat Islam,
14. It was, however, found that the books in Hindi are available. They
have been translated by the teachers on their own. The local publishers have
printed them. Naturally they cost much more than the books in Oriya which are
published by the Oriya Textbook Board. The Government can not claim credit for
these books but it will show to what extent the local linguistic minorities are
prepared to go to study in their own language. Obviously this effort does not
obviate the responsibility of he State Government for supply of textbooks. In
any case the vetting of the books should be done by the Board of Education.
15. In Berhampur, it was represented by Secretary, Telugu Sanskritutika
Samiti Jeypore that Telugu textbooks are not being supplied to the students.
The non availability of textbooks from class VIII onwards was emphasized. Up to
class VII they are prepared as per the syllabi
of Orissa
and are got printed from Andhra Pradesh.
16. In addition there are other complaints both from general public as
well as particular institutions. A specific case of discrimination and
violation of Article 30 of the Constitution was cited by Orissa Telugu
Samakhya, Berhampur. A high School was opened in Berhampur in 1930 for Telugu
knowing students. This school was taken over by the Government in violation of
the directives that minority schools can not be taken over. The reason given
was that at the time of inception, it was not declared to be a minority school
and hence this protection will not be available to them. It has been pointed
out that in 1930 the area was part of
17. Voter lists are being printed in Telugu but are not exhibited in
the polling booths.
18. Question papers are issued in English or Oriya to Telugu students.
19. It was pointed out that the mid day meals are not being given to
the students in the madarasa. This complaint was also echoed in Berhampur. It
was also pointed out that the free books which were being given to other
schools were denied to the students in the madarasas.
27.
There are other complaints (Reference can be made to the minutes of the meeting
of the Commissioner with Education Secretary on October , 2004.) The best thing
would be to nominate a senior officer as States Linguistic Minorities Officer and
let this fact known widely. He should not only coordinate with the Commissioner
Linguistic Minorities but also with various departments who deal with the
linguistic minorities. it is not intended that all the matters relating to
linguistic minorities should be dealt with by him. That would, indeed, be not
possible since they cover so many facets of administration. Only the
coordination will be done by him.
28. It
is hoped that Government of Orissa will be more sensitive towards the problems
of linguistic minorities.
6.
Uttar Pradesh
1. Population of Uttar
Pradesh, as per census 2001, is 16,61,97,921 and was 13,20,61,653 as per census
1991. According to the census 1991, the Hindi speaking persons are 90.21 % of
the total population whereas Urdu speaking persons were said to be 9.15 %.
Bijnor,
2. Hindi is the Official Language. Urdu has been declared as the second official language or the entire state which can be used in all the Government offices and seven specified purposes are laid down for it. These are –
a. Receipt of and reply to the applications and letters.
b. Acceptance of documents written in Urdu in the Registration office.
c. Publication of Government rules, regulations and notifications.
d. Issue of Government orders of public importance
e. Publication of important advertisements
f. Publication of Gazette.
g. For the important sign posts.
3. But whether this is being implemented is doubtful. In question 8, it was asked if the rules etc. are published in minority languages, the reply in ‘NO’ whereas it is included in the above list.
4. It is said that representations are received in Urdu and are also replied to in Urdu.
5. The State Government
have said “Not Applicable’ for the registration of the institutes of the
linguistic minorities. The reason given is that there are no linguistic
minority institutes in existence. When the Vidhan Sabha has passed a bill for
establishment of
6. The elementary education is from class I to VIII. Primary classes are from class I to V and upper primary from class VI to VIII. Education is imparted in Hindi and Urdu. In the reply, it is said that “Arrangements for teaching Urdu language is made if there are more than five students”. The question was really for adopting Urdu as a medium, not for teaching the language. The number of such schools or that of the number of students and teachers in them is not given where Urdu is the medium. It is also not said whether such schools exist or not.
7. Secondary Education is from class IX to XII. In this Hindi and English are the media. Urdu has not been mentioned. The question of giving the number of schools or students does not arise.
8. It is said that registers are kept for advance registration in all the primary schools. For the secondary education, where Urdu is not described as a medium, the registers are not kept.
9. In the implementation of the Three Language Formula, mother tongue is not shown as the first language. In its place Hindi is mentioned as the first language. The second language has been named as Urdu. In the third language Sanskrit, Punjabi, Bengali,
Gujarati, Marathi, Assamese, Oriya, Kashmiri, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Sindhi, Nepali etc. have been mentioned. In fact, all the languages included in the Eighth Schedule have been listed. Only Konkani and Manipuri are left out (the four languages included by the latest amendment are not yet in mind). It is also said that study of English is started from class III. If seen from this angle, there are four languages. It does not appear that the answer to this question is correct. Where is the place for English in the Three Language Formula.
10. About the teachers, it has been said that 10,999 posts are sanctioned for Urdu but about 3000 of them are vacant. To overcome this shortage, appointment is done on contract on the basis of honorarium. Training programmes are organized under the Urdu Training and Research Institute. But the number of teachers trained last year have not been specified.
11. The textbooks are said to be easily available. The books are not published by Minority Education Council. Instead tender procedure is adopted.
12. An Academy has been set up for development of Urdu. Besides academies have been set up for Sindhi and Punjabi. In addition, Fakhrudin Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee has been set up for Urdu. The date of establishment and the budget for year 2003 – 04 is as follows –
|
Language |
Name |
Date set up |
Budget |
|
Sindhi |
|
1996 |
5.10 lakhs |
|
Punjabi |
|
1998 |
1.05 lakhs |
|
Urdu |
|
1972 |
77.50 lakhs |
|
Urdu |
Fakhrudin Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee |
1976 |
12.30 lakhs |
13. Some additional information has been
given about the
14. Recently there was a news item about
the
15. No information has been given about
the Sindhi and
16. A question was asked whether any
organizations other than the Academies are being given financial assistance for
development of languages. The answer is in the negative. Previously, there was
a mention of
17. For the recruitment, English and Hindi are the medium of examinations. A question asked was whether the knowledge of the official language was a pre requisite for services or posts. The answer is interesting. It is, “The knowledge of regional language is not necessary. The knowledge of national language is required.” In fact, our reference to regional language in the context of Uttar Pradesh was to Hindi only which can also be called the national language (Actually all languages are national languages except those which are foreign languages). Probably what is being said is that knowledge of local languages like BrijBhasha, Avadhi, Jaunpuri etc. is not required. But the intention in asking the question was whether it is possible for a person educated through Urdu to join the services even if he does not know Hindi. But it is not so because the knowledge of Hindi is said to be essential. And it is doubtful if there are Urdu medium schools.
18. It has been said that the work relating to linguistic minorities is allocated to the Language Department though the answer has been received from the Minorities and Waqf Department. The name of the Nodal Officer has not been mentioned. Probably no Nodal Officer has been appointed. The job of the Nodal Officer is not only to maintain liaison with Commissioner Linguistic Minorities but it is also expected that he will be given the responsibility for receiving the complaints from the linguistic minorities and redressal of these grievances. The Government are requested to appoint a Nodal Officer of such seniority that he is competent to coordinate with other departments.
19. A similar set up for the districts as also expected. Presently it is said in relation to the districts that work is not allocated to any one.
20. It is also expected that there will be a monitoring of the implementation of the safeguards, which have been provided for the linguistic minorities, by the senior officers. For this here should be a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Secretary because many departments are involved with these safeguards.
21. About the pamphlets, it is said that the Information Department publishes a monthly magazine called ‘Naya Daur’ in Urdu language. A copy of the issue of November 2004 has been sent. A perusal of this shows that it is a literary magazine. There is certainly one article about the work done for the minorities but in fact our reference to Pamphlet was for preparing a special booklet containing the information about the facilities given to the linguistic minorities. This booklet will be distributed in those areas where the linguistic minorities live in a large number so that they are aware of their rights and the facilities offered.
22. A perusal of the November 2004 issue of ‘Naya Daur’ magazine shows that the answer given by the Government does not tally with the facts given in the magazine. For example, it is said in the magazine that 76 educational institutions have been given recognition as minority organizations. In the reply to the questionnaire, it is said that no minority institute has been given recognition. It is expected that the exact position will be intimated. For the Urdu teachers, it is said in the magazine that decision has been taken to appoint 3000 Urdu teachers whereas in the reply, it is only said that arrangements are made for teachers to be appointed on honorarium.
23. Lack of knowledge about the complaints has been expressed and it appears to be correct also. When there is no one to receive the complaints and no information is provided about the rights which have been given, where will be the complaints and to whom.
24. Similarly we had asked about the problems coming up before the Government. Obviously, when there are no complaints, the Government will not have any problems.
25. It should be mentioned that for getting the reply, there had to be repeated reminders and contact was established at the highest level but only indifference was observed. Somehow the statements has been filled up and sent but it does not have any concrete information. Neither the information from the concerned departments has been obtained nor has any trouble been taken to look at the available information.
26. In these circumstances, whether, in reality, any thing is being done for the linguistic minorities on the field is doubtful. Once reputed for its administrative structure, the State can not make available even the basic information is a matter of regret. It is hoped that attention will be paid to this at the higher levels.
7. Uttaranchal
1. The
questionnaire sent to the State failed to elicit any reply despite a number of
reminders and personal efforts.
Otherwise it is known that the linguistic minorities are limited to two
languages and two districts. One is Haridwar where Urdu speaking persons are in
considerable number. The other is Udham Singh Nagar where Punjabi speaking
persons are in significant number. In the personal discussions, it was informed
that there are also many Bengali
speaking persons in Udham Singh Nagar and they are also demanding that they should be taught Bengali. In the
absence of the linguistic profile, nothing can be said with authority in this
respect. The census 2001 profile is not yet out and census 1991 figures are
also not available because Uttaranchal became a separate State only a few years
back.
2. Due
to the non receipt of the reply, it is not possible to say any thing more. It
is hoped that full information will be available in future and the correct
position can be discussed.
8. Karnataka
1. A complete reply could not be received from Karnataka but
information about some of the questions has been received. This is being listed
here. This information is mostly about the Education Department.
2. The linguistic profile has been described in the previous Reports.
This is as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Urdu |
44,80,038 |
9-96 |
|
Telugu |
33,25,062 |
7-39 |
|
Tamil |
17,28,361 |
3-84 |
|
Marathi |
16,40,020 |
3-65 |
|
Tulu |
13,78,779 |
3-07 |
|
Hindi |
8,85,251 |
1-97 |
|
Malayalam |
7,57,030 |
1-68 |
|
Konkani |
7,06,397 |
1-57 |
|
Lamani |
5,47,797 |
1-22 |
3. It is stated that there are no separate rules for the recognition of
the institutes, but after the registration the question of recognition as
minority institute is considered as per the orders. In fact what we had
requested for was information about these orders. The Government is requested
to send a copy of these orders.
4. At present all those institutes which had applied for recognition
have been granted recognition. The information about these institutes and those
getting grants in aid is as follows -
|
Language |
Recognized |
Receiving
Grants |
|
Urdu |
426 |
225 |
|
Marathi |
214 |
148 |
|
Telugu |
60 |
32 |
|
Malayalam |
8 |
3 |
|
Gujarati |
7 |
4 |
|
Tamil |
118 |
85 |
5. It has been intimated that all the institutes which had applied for
grants in aid have been granted grants in aid.
6. For the primary education, Urdu, Tamil and Telugu have been
described as the media. The number of the schools for the year 2003 – 04 is as
follows -
|
Type |
|
Urdu |
Tamil |
Telugu |
Marathi |
Malayalam |
Total |
|
Government |
Primary |
3,811 |
87 |
56 |
917 |
2 |
4,873 |
|
High
School |
139 |
|
4 |
32 |
|
175 |
|
|
Total |
3,950 |
87 |
60 |
949 |
2 |
5,048 |
|
|
Aided |
Primary |
133 |
91 |
21 |
38 |
2 |
285 |
|
High
School |
97 |
1 |
6 |
92 |
|
196 |
|
|
Total |
230 |
92 |
27 |
130 |
2 |
481 |
|
|
Un
Aided |
Primary |
165 |
1 |
12 |
19 |
|
197 |
|
High
s/chool |
65 |
1 |
2 |
67 |
|
135 |
|
|
Total |
230 |
2 |
14 |
86 |
|
332 |
7. The position of teachers is shown as
follows -
|
Language |
Primary |
Secondary |
Total |
|
Urdu |
13,549 |
2,270 |
15,819 |
|
Marathi |
5,318 |
1,261 |
6,579 |
|
Telugu |
466 |
156 |
622 |
|
Tamil |
1,048 |
23 |
1,071 |
|
Gujarati |
21 |
|
21 |
|
Malayalam |
28 |
|
28 |
8. The number of posts sanctioned and the vacancies for the teachers is
as follows but it is not clear which category of teachers it refers to.
|
Language |
|
|
|
Sanctioned |
Vacancies |
|
|
Hindi |
3,492 |
494 |
|
Urdu |
462 |
49 |
|
Telugu |
41 |
2 |
|
Tamil |
24 |
3 |
|
Marathi |
148 |
4 |
9. It
has been stated that action to fill up these vacancies is to start shortly. In
service training for the Urdu, Marathi, Telugu and Tamil teachers is being
organised by DIETs. No information has been given about the teachers trained in
year 2003 – 04.
10.
Karnataka Government have given a note about 40th Report. The point
raised therein have been replied to. It states that
1. No representations or applications are received in minority languages. Most of the applications are in English or Kannada. If any one applies in minority language, they will be accepted and replied to. (Nothing has been mentioned about the language of reply.)
2. The knowledge of Kannada is not necessary for entry into state services but he has to learn the regional language within the probationary period of two years.
3. The proposals for the printing of the pamphlets will be sent to the Government.
11. It
is reported that there is no shortage of textbooks.
12. It
is informed that
13.
Director, Urdu and Minority Languages has been appointed as the Nodal Officer.
14. It
is hoped that the Nodal Officer will be able to get the information from all
the departments and send it. Without that, it will not be possible to evaluate
the activities of Karnataka. It is necessary that the review of the
implementation of the safeguards is done by the Chief Secretary where all the
principal officers and the chairmen of the Academies are present.
9. Kerala
1. The population of Kerala as per the census 2001 is 3,18,38,619. The linguistic profile as per the census 1991, which is available. is as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Malayalam |
2,80,96,376 |
96-96 |
|
Tamil |
6,16,010 |
2-13 |
|
Kannada |
75,571 |
0-26 |
|
Konkani |
64,008 |
0-22 |
2. Kannada and Konkani have been mentioned because its speakers are concentrated in a few districts. It is to be mentioned that in the previous years, Konkani was not included but last year some concessions have been announced and hence it is being mentioned. Kerala Government have mentioned the number of Kannada speaking persons as 48,933 which is the figure for Kasargod district only.
3. The strength of the Konkani community, according to themselves, is about four lakhs. For writing the language, Devanagari is used. If we look at the census figures, Tulu speakers outnumber Konkani speakers. Tulu speakers are as per the census 1991. Konkani is mainly spoken in Ernakulam (25,272); Kasargod (17,017) and Alpuzha (9,744).
4. The areas where more than 15 % of the population are linguistic minorities are as follows –
|
District |
Tahsil/ town |
Language |
Percentage |
|
Thiruvananthpuram |
Thiruvananthpuram |
Tamil |
17-9 |
|
Idduki |
Pirumade Udanban chola Devikulum |
Tamil |
39-5 46-39 46-39 |
|
Pallakad |
Chittoor Pallakad |
|
22-27 |
|
Kasargod |
Kasasgod |
Kannada |
15-00 |
5. The Official Language of the State is Malayalam. The translation of the important rules etc. are done. In the year 2002 – 03, 15 Acts and 5 Ordinances were translated into Tamil. 13 Acts and 4 Ordinances are translated into Kannada. In the year 2003 – 04, another 34 Acts/ Rules in Tamil and 22 Acts/ Rules in Kannada were translated. In the same period, four Ordinances/ rules were translated in Tamil and three in Kannada.
6. There is a translation bureau in the Law Department for the translation. In the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Idduki and Pallakad there are Tamil translation cells. In Kasargod there is a Kannada translation cell.
7. The Government reply to the letters received in minority languages in that language only.
8. For the recognition of the minority institutes, there are separate guidelines. These were issued on 12. 08.68 and were reconfirmed on 4. 7. 74. There are 103 Tamil Primary schools, 27 secondary schools and four TTIs recognised. For Kannada the number is 6 primary and 6 six secondary schools. In 1986, the Government of India issued guidelines which are being studied so that if necessary, the Kerala rules can be changed.
9. The elementary education is from class I to VII. Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada and Konkani are the languages used for teaching. The condition stipulates five students in a class. In these schools. Malayalam is taught from class I only. The district wise number of schools is given. For Tamil, here are nine schools in Thiruvananthapuram, three in Kollam, 54 in Idduki, 6 in Pallakad and two in Wynad. for Kannada, there are 34 schools in Kasargod. In Alpuzha and Ernakulam, there are two school each for Konkani.
10. The total number of the minority language schools is 197 in which, in the year 2002 – 03, the number of students was 7,673 and that of teachers was 265. The language wise number of students and teachers is not given, A detailed list for district wise schools is given. according to it the number of schools is as follows -
|
Language |
High School |
Primary School |
Total |
Teachers Training |
|||||
|
Schools |
Aided |
Schools |
Aided |
Schools |
Aided |
Un Aided |
|||
|
Tamil |
12 |
18 |
32 |
46 |
111 |
2 |
- |
- |
|
|
Kannada |
2 |
12 |
17 |
47 |
78 |
- |
- |
- |
|
|
Konkani |
& |
4 |
& |
4 |
8 |
- |
2 |
1 |
|
11. Thus there are 202 schools. There are 187 schools even leaving aside the teachers training institutes.
12. In the last four years, the number of students at the primary level has been as follows -
|
Year |
Students |
|
2000-01 |
7,877 |
|
2001-02 |
7,768 |
|
2002-03 |
7,673 |
13. Why is there dwindling of the number of students has to be considered.
14. In the secondary education, there are classes VIII to X. Malayalam, English, Tamil and Kannada are the media of instruction. Here also the condition is of five students only. The question papers are prepared in all these languages. There are five schools of Tamil in Thiruvananthapuram, four in Kollam and six in Pallakad. Information has not been given about the Kannada schools. In the year 2002 – 03, there were 110 teachers teaching 1,055 students in 25 schools.
15. The system of maintenance of advance registers to determine the choice of the linguistic preference of the students is in force. All the 1,172 primary and 185 secondary schools are maintaining these registers.
16. The Three Language Formula is being implemented. In the first language, there are two parts, the first one having Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Sanskrit, Arabic, Urdu, French and Syrian from which one is to be chosen. In the second part, choice can be made out of Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada but those students who take the mother tongue in the first part have to take Malayalam in the second. The second language is English and the third Hindi.
17. The number of teachers, both for the primary and secondary teachers is said to be insufficient. But the number of vacancies is said to be six for primary and 15 for secondary schools. This is not a large number. It is not clear if the sanctioned posts are considered to be inadequate. The teachers are trained in DIETs and Teachers Training Institutes. 41 teachers were trained in them. There is no shortage of textbooks, it is reported. There is no Academy for the minority languages.
18. In the matter of recruitment to the services, the information given is that English, Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada are the media of examinations. The question papers are prepared in English but some question papers are prepared in Malayalam also. The Tamil and Kannada versions of these question papers are given to the linguistic minority candidates. The knowledge of Malayalam is not essential for entry into services. There is no restriction about domicile.
19. The departmental heads have been authorized to fix the number of LDCs who should now Kannada/ Tamil in the linguistic minority areas out of the sanctioned strength. The recruitment is done through the Public Service Commission.
20. The responsibility for the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities is with the General Administration Department. There is a committee under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister to monitor the safeguards. This meets regularly. The last meeting was on July 15, 2004 which was the third meeting of the reorganized committee. Kerala Government have given a copy of the minutes of the meeting which shows the proof of its being active. It is hoped that other states can also be motivated by this example. In brief it shows that not only in the field of education, but also in such fields as transport, the linguistic minorities are being looked after.
21. Similarly in the five districts, committees have been constituted under the chairmanship of the Collector. These committees are meeting regularly. In these committees, MPs, MLAs, officers and three representatives of the linguistic minority organizations are the members.
22. In the concerned districts there are Tamil and Kannada cells. In Ernakulam, action has been taken to set up a cell for Konkani. These cells give the necessary information to he linguistic minorities. In the year 2003, a brochure was issued in English for their information. The Tamil and Kannada versions have also been published. copies are sent for information to the Commissioner.
23. Additional Secretary, General Administration Department is appointed as the State Linguistic Minority Officer. He considers the complaints received from the linguistic minorities. On the district level, the responsibility is given to the Collectors.
24. In the 40th Report, a recommendation was made that minority languages should be used in the local organizations in the concerned districts. It is reported that this is under examination. A provision for nomination of representatives of the linguistic minorities to the Senate has been included in the proposed Kerala University Bill 2003. Similarly the
nomination in the Academic Councils and General Council also. as has been mentioned before, In some schools, a five percent reservation has been given for the linguistic minorities. In this reservation, Konkani have also been included now
25. It has been informed that in Culture
Department of Kerala, there is an institution on the lines of Bharat Bhavan of
26. The representatives
of Tamil Sangham informed that in 1956, there were nine Tamil schools in
Thiruvananthapuram which number has been reduced to four now. The percentage of
Tamil speakers was also 30 percent which is now said to be 17 %. formerly there was no condition for
taking Tamil as a subject but now this condition has been imposed. They were of
the opinion that even of there is no teacher, if the students wants to write
his answer in Tamil, he should be permitted. They were also of the opinion that
five percent reservation given to the linguistic minorities in the schools is
not enough. Some other institutions should also be include in this list of
schools for reservation to admissions for class XI. Another point was about not
keeping Tamil as a subject in B. Sc by the
Academic committee of the University. It should be reconsidered.
27. A Tamil School in the Chalai area of Thiruvananthapuram city was visited. This school is up to class XII. Tamil is the medium up to class X. Afterwards English is the only medium. This is the situation with all the schools, not only of the linguistic minorities schools. The students are permitted to write their answers in Malayalam but the instructions are all in English. In Class XI, Tamil is being taught as the second language. For this there are 18 students. Rest of the students have taken Hindi as the second language. This facility has been given in this school. The normal is that one language is permitted in a school as second language. There are 49 students in class IX and 44 in class X. The total number of students in the school is 252. The number of teachers is eight.
28- In this school, a teachers training course is also being run alongside. There were 50 students in first year and 37 in the second. But for this no teachers have been appointed by the Government. One teacher from the senior secondary school is teaching them. In addition, the services of one retired teacher have been utilized. He is working gratis.
29. According to the teacher, one of the essential requirement of the institute is a language laboratory. This will enable the trainees to learn about the various aspects of language leaching conveniently and it will be easier for them to teach language to the students.
30. Another requirement was obviously the extension of he building.
31. The shortage of Tamil books was also referred to. It is hoped that steps will be taken in this connection.
32. A meeting was also held with the representatives of the Konkani community. They were happy with the decision of the State Government that Konkani was also included in the reservation for seats in the schools but they wanted the extension of these facilities. It should also be kept in consideration for admission in the higher educational institutions and the services. The Commissioner said that the Central Government have constituted a Commission which will consider this question. In the personal opinion of he Commissioner, the extension of the filed of reservations. In fact the demand of the time is that there should be reduction in these. Otherwise also, the Government services are not being expanded and there will be a lesser number of appointments in he Government.
33. The Tamil Sangham was also of the opinion that Malayalam has been made a compulsory subject from class V. Due to this there is burden of learning four languages on the student. In the opinion of the Commissioner, this objection is not correct. Malayalam is the regional language and also the Official Language. It would be a correct step to learn it. However, the burden can be considered by laying down appropriate standards of achievements. This has been discussed in some details in Chapter one of this Report.
34. As has been said above, though some deficiency may have been shown in Kerala, their commitment to the linguistic minorities is a model for other states to follow.
10.
1.
Population of
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Gujarati |
3,77,92,933 |
91-49 |
|
Hindi |
12,15,825 |
2-94 |
|
Sindhi |
7,04,088 |
1-70 |
|
Marathi |
5,66,191 |
1-37 |
|
Urdu |
5,47,737 |
1-33 |
2. In Sindhi, the figures of Kutchi are
also included. According to the Census Commissioner, Kutchi is a dialect of
Sindhi but neither the Sindhis nor the Kutchis accept this. Kutchi people
believe that their language descended straight from Prakrit. According to the
census 1991, the number of Kutchis is 4,35,668 in
3. The State has not informed about the areas where the population of linguistic minorities is more than 15 % of the total population. Previously the State Government have stated Dangs, Surat, Ahmadabad and Kutch districts were declared as the areas where the linguistic minorities were more than 15 % of the population.
4. The Official Language of the State are said to be Gujarati and Hindi. These can be used for all the purposes. There are no arrangements for translation of the important rules etc. in the minority languages. Therefore, there is no facility for replying to the representations in the minority languages. This should be mentioned that in the questionnaire this question has not been answered directly.
5. There are separate rules for the recognition of the minority institutes in the State. According to these, the secondary schools are registered. For this the trustees should be from the minority community and only they should be managing the school. It should be made clear right at the time of setting up that the institute is from the linguistic or the religious minority. The documents regarding this should be attached to the application for registration. The objective of the trust should invariably be the development and encouragement of the linguistic minorities. such institutions have been exempted from certain sections and rules of Gujarat Secondary Education Act and the Gujarat Secondary Education Rules.
6. The State Government have given the district wise information about the registered linguistic minority institutes. According to this, there are 54 institutes for Hindi, 24 for Sindhi, 10 for Marathi, 8 for Urdu, one for Tamil registered. In addition there are 74 schools for English and 282 for Gujarati but these do not come under the definition of linguistic minority institutes.
7. Primary education is from class I to V in which Gujarati is
the main medium for instruction. In addition minority languages are also the
media of education. for this the number of students is fifteen. Regional
language is taught from class V in these schools. The State Government have
given district wise information for the schools. Most of the Hindi schools are in
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
275 |
91,397 |
1,997 |
|
Urdu |
170 |
53,365 |
1,200 |
|
Marathi |
98 |
47,261 |
950 |
|
Sindhi |
36 |
5,125 |
231 |
|
Tamil |
20 |
4,863 |
145 |
|
Telugu |
9 |
3,662 |
70 |
|
Oriya |
5 |
1,999 |
16 |
|
Malayalam |
1 |
125 |
5 |
8.
For the year 2003 – 04, the same figures have been repeated except for Hindi.
In Hindi the number of students has gone up by 8 to become 91,405. The State
Government is requested to get the information from the districts in a set
format so that correct information is received.
9.
The secondary education level is from class VIII to X. In this besides Gujarati
and English, Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Tamil are stated as media. district wise
list of schools is given. The number is same as given for the recognized
institutes. It appears that the Government schools where the minority languages
are taught have not been included in this. For the year 2003 – 04, only the
information about Hindi is given which is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
54 |
13,500 |
324 |
10. For
the year 2003 – 04 the number of schools has become 57 and the number of
students 14,175. The number of teachers is 340. No information has been given
about other languages.
11.
The question papers are given by the Board in Gujarati and English only. This
creates problems for the students studying though minority languages especially
Urdu and Sindhi probably because the technical words in these languages are
entirely different. Though all the students know Gujarati, the difficulty is
probably due to these words. It should be considered that the question papers
can be given in these languages also.
12. The Advance Registers are not being maintained in the
State.
13. In the Three Language Formula, only Gujarati, Hindi and
English are mentioned. Minority languages are not mentioned.
14. The teachers are said to be in sufficient number.
15. No shortage of textbooks is reported. These books are
published by Gujarat State Textbooks Board. But in Gandhidham, it was informed
that the books in Sindhi in Devanagari for the secondary and senior secondary
classes are not available in time.
16. No information has been given about the academies. Urdu
and
17. There is a demand for the development of Kutchi language.
There are many persons who are writing in Kutchi but there is dearth of those
who would publish these books. I met one writer who is above eighty years of
age.
He
has written many books but they were destroyed in the earth quake of 2000
without publication. To avoid repeat of this, the people demand that assistance
should be given for their publication. An Academy should be created for Kutchi
also just as has been done for other languages. Their demand does not appear to
be unreasonable. Otherwise a decision to set up
18. There is another aspect of development of Kutchi.
Presently Kutchi language is not used in the written form though All India
Radio Bhuj broadcasts Krishi Jagat (Agriculture World) regularly in Kutchi. In addition, twice a week
Kutchi programmmes are broadcast. Door Darshan’s contribution is only the
telecast of Kutchi songs on the occasion of Kutchi new year day (Asadh Dwitya).
Kutch Mitra is a daily newspaper from Bhuj which publishes a Kutchi article
once a week. But on the personal level, may persons are writing prose and
poetry in Kutchi. In 1981, a Kutchi Gujarati dictionary was also published.
19. Though Kutchi is not used at any level in education but at
the school level the students are taught in Kutchi because without that the
students just can not learn. This is a very powerful argument for using the
mother tongue for the first two years of education. In
20. To give the teachers from outside
21. Shri Narain Joshi has also published a book for teaching
Kutchi to the teachers from outside through Kutchi Sahitya Kala Sangh. In this
the equivalent words of Kutchi and Gujarati are given. The objective of this
book is to practice Kutchi for those whose mother tongue is not Kutchi so that
they can teach the Kutchi students.
22.
According to the District Education Officer, about 1800 teachers have been
trained for using Kutchi in imparting instructions. Apart from two tahsils, the
rest of the district is dominated by Kutchi.
23. In this context, it
should also be mentioned that In Bhuj, a museum :Bhartiya Sanskriti foundation”
has been set up and managed under the
inspiration of one person. It has a good collection of dresses, musical instruments,
coins, ornaments etc which are a source of inspiration. It also depicts the
love of Kutchi people for the preservation of their culture.
24. Regional Language Gujarati is the medium of examination
for recruitment. Knowledge of Gujarati is also essential. for this there are
two levels of examination, the lower and the higher one. It is to be enquired
in what circumstances the two levels are to be used.
25. No information has been given about the machinery. and also there is nothing about pamphlets.
The linguistic minorities ought to be informed by public notification about the
safeguards provided. For this the publication of the pamphlets is requested.
There is also a demand by the linguistic minorities that a special circular
should be issued to the officers to make them aware of the facilities provided
to the linguistic minorities.
26.
It is to be mentioned that the information that has been received from the
Gujarat Government is mostly about education. It appears that the information
is prepared by the Education Department and other departments have not
responded.
27.
On the other hand, it is a matter of pleasure that in a meeting with the Chief
Secretary and other officers, it was assured that the Gujarat Government will
be active in respect of the rights given to the linguistic minorities. The
Chief Secretary is of the view that the linguistic minorities themselves are
losing the attraction for their language due to the attraction for English.
Even so the State Government is trying for instruction through these languages.
He said that action is being taken to make provisions for maintaining the
standards in the light of the decision of the Supreme Court but there is no
situation in which adverse action is to be taken against these institutions.
28. The
view of the Commissioner is that there is no conflict in so far as the policies
is concerned. The minority groups are also confident about it. But in the
practical application of the policy, difficulties crop up occasionally which
can be removed through mutual discussions. he was of the view that that the
discussions of this nature at the district level can solve most of these
problems. A six monthly review should also be done at the state level.
29.
On the practical level, an example is that the Board of Secondary Education has
modified the syllabus of secondary level (class VIII to X) from this year. The
new arrangement is as follows –
|
1.
Mother tongue (in the context of medium of instruction) |
First Language |
|
|
2. Gujarati / English |
In
schools other than the Gujarati medium schools, mother tongue will be the
first language and Gujarati as the second language. |
|
|
3. Hindi |
Third Language. |
|
|
4.
Sanskrit / Classical Language |
|
|
30.
For the linguistic minorities also English is the point of action in the normal
circumstances and it is being adopted as the medium. According to the above
formula, if they do this than their mother tongue is left out. The linguistic
minorities want to preserve their culture and language on the one hand and, on
the other hand, they do not want to be left behind in the employment market
and, hence, want to have English as the medium. The alternatives provided to
them are painful. Commissioner is of the opinion that the linguistic minorities
can be helped in this difficult choice. One of the proposals is that
minority
language should be allowed as the fourth language where it will be alternative
to Sanskrit and classical language. The other
alternative is to have composite course of Hindi and the mother tongue
as has been done by Goa and
31. Another difficulty faced by the linguistic
minority institutes is regarding the recognition. In Gandhidham, it was
informed that an institute was running three schools earlier which had been
given recognition much earlier. The same institute has started another school
but it is not getting recognition. The reason cited is that after 1998, the
procedure of granting recognition on the basis of grants has been stopped. The
institutions can be granted recognition only on the basis of self financed
institutions. The institute says that the linguistic minority students, for
whom they want to open the school, are not in a position to pay the kind of
fees and other dues that is necessary to keep alive a self financed school.
Similar views were also expressed by the office bearers of F. D. College of
Arts and Commerce in
college
is for girls only and there are 300 girls in it at present.
32. The Commissioner is
of the view that some concessions should be given in the cases concerning the
linguistic minorities. In fact each case should be considered on its own
merits. It is not denied that some colleges are started only on commercial
considerations especially for professional courses like engineering and
management, but this is not applicable to the schools and general colleges.
33. Another problem is regarding the exemption of the
linguistic minority institutes from some provisions of the Gujarat Education
Code. This includes the appointment of their own teachers. It has been
intimated that these institutes are directed to adjust the surplus teachers,
and on their failure to do so, the grants are stopped. Due to this even the
teachers who are working do not get their salaries. For example in the
But for this it is not necessary to encroach upon the rights granted to these institutes. This matter should be considered sympathetically.
34. Attention was also
drawn towards another difficulty. In Adipur,
35. According to the Government instructions, the recognized institutions have been exemption from some of the provisions of the Education Code. For example, the roster does not operate for them. They can select their teachers and employees on their own discretion. But in practice, this is not being done. The presence of an officer of Education Department is not necessary at the time of interview. But not only is this being insisted upon but it is also directed that the teachers should be selected at the district selection place in Bhuj. If this s not done, the Education Officer does not give the no objection certificate and the amount of grant can not be received for this reason.
36. In the primary schools, the amount of grant has been limited to 85 % of the salary of teachers. There is no grant for pay of clerks, peons, farash, the rent of the building, stationary, publications, travelling allowances. The institutes are expected that they will bear all these expenses and also pay the balance of 15 % of the teachers’ salaries. This is very difficult orders to follow. The rule is that only on the deposit of the 15 % of salary, the payment to the teachers will be made. Therefore their salaries are stopped for months on end. It is said that for secondary schools, the full amount of salaries is paid as grants. They also get sufficient assistance for rent etc. It is expectd of the primary schools that they will deposit the fees received from the students with the Government whereas the idea is that the primary education should be completely free. It is said that a grant of Rs. four per student is paid as grants for general expenses.
37. A doubt was expressed whether giving encouragement to different languages would not tantamount to creating a spirit of separatism. The Commissioner, however, feels that unity does not mean uniformity. If there are many more other languages , the importance of Gujarati is not going to be any less for that reason. On the other hand by trying to forcefully impose a language will make it difficult to achieve the emotional unity that is being talked about. He cited the examples of Welsh, Romana, Mavri languages which could
not be finished off despite years of restrictions and indifference and are today again are being used for imparting instructions. In fact, the matching of colours is what lends beauty to the picture.
38. A view was also expressed that the
examiners tend to give more marks in Sindhi or other minority languages papers.
This helps them in the competition. especially as
39. On the other hand, it was also said that the answer books
in Sindhi were given to the evaluator who did not know Sindhi and who allotted
marks only on the basis of his imagination. In fact, the problem is of mutual
confidence.
40. In this context examples of
have a long literary tradition. In
41. A question was also raised about the definition of language. The
Commissioner is of the opinion that Kutchi and Bhili are also considered as
languages but they are not being used in the field of education. It is possible
that some people deliberately give information about their language which is
different from their reality so that they can make use of the facilities
provided. But it is difficult to make rules about it. Only the individual can
say what his language is. And only on the basis of linguistics, it can be said
whether a language exists on its own or
is a dialect or a variant of another language. Census Commissioner has
prepared his statistics on the basis that Kutchi is a dialect of Sindhi but
neither the Kutchis nor the Sindhis consider these to be the same language.
42. It was attempted that the linguistic minorities which are living in
small groups should be considered. In Okha tahsil of district
11.
1.
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Konkani |
6,02,626 |
51-52 |
|
Marathi |
3,90,270 |
33-36 |
|
Kannada |
54,323 |
4-64 |
|
Urdu |
39,944 |
3-41 |
|
Hindi |
37,073 |
3-17 |
|
Malayalam |
12,962 |
1-11 |
2. There are no areas where the linguistic minorities are more than 15 % of the population of the area. Obviously Marathi is not taken into account for this purpose. The position of Marathi is unique as it is almost treated on par with Konkani for all purposes.
3. Konkani is the official language of the state. There is no second official language. However, as per notification, Marathi will be used for the purpose of reply by the Government whenever communications are received in that language. In the Official Language Act, it is provided that "the Marathi language, shall also be used for all or any of the official purposes". Further it is provided that "nothing contained in this sub section shall be deemed to affect the use of the Marathi language in educational, social or cultural fields". The Act directs the State not to make any discrimination in the matter of grants to the institutes on the ground of language.
4. The answer to the question whether the Acts, rules, notices etc. are made available in Marathi language is in negative. In discussions, It was explained that this is done though there is no regular machinery for translation. In fact almost everybody knows Marathi and there is no need to have a separate agency for this purpose. The Department of Official Languages looks after the job.
5. There are no specific guidelines for
the recognition of the linguistic minorities institutions. They are governed
under the provisions of Goa School Education Act 1984 and
6. The information about the linguistic minority schools in the State were provided. There are 25 Urdu medium primary schools and one middle school. In addition there are 2 Government aided primary schools and 5 middle schools. In Kannada there are 15 Government primary schools and 2 middle schools. There are also 2 aided high schools.
7. Marathi, Konkani, Urdu, Kannada , Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi are the media which are allowed for the elementary level i.e. class I to VII. In the case of Government schools, the minimum of students for each class is 19 but this is reduced to 10 for the linguistic minority students. The data is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
||
|
Urdu |
6 |
1,477 |
56 |
||
|
Kannada |
2 |
2,036 |
69 |
||
|
Malayalam |
1 |
11 |
2 |
||
|
Telugu |
1 |
79 |
2 |
||
|
Hindi |
1 |
396 |
18 |
||
have to go to Ulga, Karwar to appear in the examinations. It is difficult for the students to go there. The teachers have to accompany them and they are also reluctant to do so. From class I to VII, Maharashtra Board syllabus is used. For class VIII to X, Karnataka Board syllabus is use. There should be one syllabus to be followed. They wanted that Goa Board should grant recognition for Kannada medium.
10. The data is for Urdu and Kannada schools. it is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
4 |
1,042 |
45 |
|
Kannada |
2 |
842 |
30 |
11. At the
primary stage, the first language is Marathi, English, Urdu, Kannada or Telugu.
Second language is English where it is not the first language. There is no
third language.
12. Regarding the Three Language Formula, at the secondary stage, the first language is English, Marathi, Urdu or Kannada. The second language is Hindi introduced in class V. Composite courses are introduced from class VIII. These can be Sanskrit – Marathi; Sanskrit – Hindi etc. The third language is English if it is not the first language. If the first language is English, the third language is a language other than English. From standard VIII, Indian classical language or a foreign language are allowed to be selected from the list.
13. No shortage of teachers is reported.
This was at variance with the representations that there were shortage of
teachers in Urdu schools. Interviews have been held in October but appointments
were not made. It was informed that due to the inability to find the qualified
teachers for all the posts, there is delay in appointments. But action will be
taken to appoint the persons who have been found fit. The representatives said
that there is condition of domicile in the State for fifteen years and only the
persons with this qualification are called for interview. In addition the
benefit of the domicile of the husband
to the women marrying into
14. It was informed that the State
Government is considering various alternatives. The teachers in
15. Another suggestion was that, in order to remove the shortage of teachers in Urdu and other languages, a D. Ed. course should be run in the State specially for these candidates. It was felt, in the discussions, that such a course can not be run on an annual basis as the question of employment of the trained teachers will arise. However, a course like this can be run every five years or so in which only the teachers for the minority languages will be trained.
16. No shortage of textbooks is reported. It
is said that books are procured from
18. In the matter of recruitment, knowledge
of Konkani is compulsory while that of Marathi is optional. This is being done
to encourage the local candidates and the practice was started after
19. In the meeting held with the representatives of the linguistic minority schools, some suggestions for better services were made. Some of these are –
1. Separate ADEI should be appointed for Kannada medium school as is done in the case of Urdu. It was intimated that, arrangements have been made to inspect the linguistic minorities schools. This is a welcome step and it is hoped that minor local out as a result of such inspections.
2. Relaxation should be granted in respect of staff appointed by the minority institutes.
3. Posts which have continued for a long time should be made permanent instead of giving permission on year to year basis.
4. A plea was made for the use of minority languages for the pre school education. These should be looked upon as the feeder institutions for the schools. The rationale for giving the instructions in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education is that it is easier to learn through it. To use any language other than the mother tongue at the preschool level runs counter to this basic principle. This is very important and it is hoped that this would be ensured.
5. New school may be allowed to be opened wherever necessary. Some schools which have gone defunct should be given another chance.
6. In GHS Vaddem Nagar, Vasco, there is no Urdu teacher. When the issue was raised with the authorities but no teacher was provided. Instead of that Urdu subject is withdrawn. Plea was made for appointment of a teacher.
7. A subject inspector in Urdu may be appointed in the State Institute of Education (SIE).
8. It was a general demand that representatives of linguistic minorities should be appointed to the Educational Advisory Committee.
9. The question paper for
the tenth class is set in Urdu but the question paper is first prepared in
English and then got translated in Urdu from
10. It was informed that when a student from takes a minority language in class V as a third language, he is obliged to read the books which were prescribed two years earlier. For example in class VI, he has to read the book prescribed for fourth class for the schools with that language as the medium. In the seventh class, the book for class V is used. This provision appears to have been made so that easier books can be given to the students who are starting the language in class V. A distinction should be made between the students from the two streams. What alternatives can be provided has to be considered in depth.
11.
12. A general problem of non admission of students without birth certificates were raised but the officers explained that there are alternate methods to prove date of birth.
20. An enquiry was made about the
provision of annual grant of the Sarva Shiksha
Abhiyan to the teachers for the preparation of the teaching material. The
Commissioner is of the opinion that this amount can be used to prepare the
charts etc. for the minority languages. It was informed that
21. There was an objection made on behalf
of
protection for its rights, it should have same considerations for its own teachers.
22.
12. Chhatisgarh
1. The
population of Chhatisgarh according to the census 2001 is 2,07,95,956. The
population as per the 1991 census was 1,76,14,928. Regarding the linguistic
profile, only this much is said that the Hindi speakers are more than 80
percent. Which linguistic groups are comprised in the remaining 20 %, nothing
has been motioned about it. Otherwise if some attempt is made, it is not difficult
to know it. Commissioner Linguistic Minorities, in his Thirty Ninth Report has
given full details about it. It is being repeated here.
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Hindi |
1,12,11,592 |
80.33 |
|
Gondi |
7,08,530 |
5.08 |
|
Oriya |
5,71,911 |
4.10 |
|
Halabi |
4,08,798 |
2.93 |
|
Kurukh/ Oraon |
3,49,332 |
2.50 |
|
Bengali |
1,33,182 |
0.95 |
|
Telugu |
1,16,585 |
0.84 |
|
Marathi |
1,09,532 |
0.78 |
2.
Similarly which areas have more than 60 % or more than 15 % of the population
as linguistic minorities, has also been discussed in the Thirty Ninth Report.
But no efforts have been made to find out these areas.
3. When
these areas have not been identified, the question of publication of important
rules etc. in a minority language does not arise.
4. It is
stated that no representations are received in any minority language and,
therefore, obviously the question of replying in that language does not arise.
5. It is
also stated that no concessions are given for registration of the linguistic
minority institutes and no list is kept for this purpose.
6. While
talking about the primary education some positive reply has been received. It
is said that Primary education is given in Urdu, Oriya and Sanskrit considering
them as mother tongues. The information about Sanskrit as mother tongue appears
strange. There has been no demand for this from anywhere and Chhatisgarh is not
expected to be an exception. There may
be some schools in which the children may be learning Sanskrit but it can not
be called as education through the mother tongue. and that appears to be the
reason why it is not mentioned in the statistics. The data is for Urdu and
Oriya only. It is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
88 |
5,623 |
84 |
|
Oriya |
1 |
157 |
4 |
7. The
number of the Oriya speakers is about ten times that of Urdu speakers but only
one school has been shown for them. This shows that either the information is
not correct or the system is not alright. The above figures are for elementary
education which is for class I to VIII.
8. The
Secondary education is from class IX to XII but here the media are Hindi and
English. Therefore the information is Nil.
9. In a
meeting at
10. Similarly information was given about the setting up of Madarasa
Board and it was said that those madarasas will be registered which agree to
upgradation. It was requested that the information about such schools should be
sent to the Commissioner Linguistic minorities. But no information has been
sent in this respect. At that time the information was that 25 madarasas have
been registered but only twelve have received one teacher each. Madarasa Board
is arranging its own examinations.
11. Obviously action to register the choice of the language is not
taken at any stage.
12. In the Three Language Formula mother tongue has been described as
the first language. The second language is shown as General Hindi and English.
The third language is shown as ‘Sanskrit, Urdu and other languages’. The answer
is not clear. Can the person whose mother tongue is Bengali can take Bengali,
General Hindi and Sanskrit as the three languages. It appears that mind has not
been applied while replying o this question.
13. In the teachers the information is given about only the Urdu
teachers who number 473. The number of vacancies has not been given but it is
said that action is being taken to fill them up. No mention has been made of
Oriya. For the training also the information is ‘nil’. but there is no doubt
about the availability of the textbooks. It is stated that the textbooks are
prepared and published by State Council for
Education Research and Training.
14. The
reply says that two Urdu Academies have been set up, one on 1.10.2003 at Raipur
which has been given budget allocation of Rs. 20 lakhs in year 2003 – 04; and
the other on 5.5.2003 at Durg/ Rajnandgaon whose budget s shown to be ‘nil’. No
report has been sent about their activities. The need to set up two academies
(or even one) when the number of those who speak Urdu is so small is not
understood when there are other languages with many more speakers who would be
needing it. It is not that it is incorrect to do some thing for Urdu but same,
if not more, should be done for the other languages .
15. In
reply to the question as to which department is concerned with the linguistic
minorities, the names of both the Education and Tribal Welfare Departments are
given. The Chief Secretary had ordered that the Director Public Instruction
will be the Nodal Officer and the Education Department will be the Nodal
Department. If there is only one department, it will be easier for the
linguistic minorities to contact them. Any one can do the work but the
coordination department can be only one. At the district level, the work has
been entrusted to the district Education Officer.
16. It
has been mentioned that State Minority Commission has been constituted and the
work relating to the linguistic minorities has also been assigned to it. It
includes the work relating to registration and renewal also. The Report of the
Commission has been received. It mentions only one item about encouragement to
Urdu language (and that is also doubtful) which is announcement of awards in
the names of Maulana Abdul Kalam, Maulana Rauf and Maulana Hamid Ali.
17.
While discussing the recruitment of the teachers teaching the language or
through the medium of the language, a reference has been made to the decision
of the Supreme Court in which it is said that while selecting the candidates,
the knowledge of local language should
not be insisted upon. It is not clear in which context the orders were passed.
Obviously these can not apply to the appointment of the language teachers that
they should know the language for which they are to be recruited. It was
requested to send more information about the case but no information has been
received.
18.
During the visit to Bilaspur, some schools were visited. Telugu, Oriya and
Bengali schools were included in them. At some point of time, these languages
were the media of education but now it is Hindi medium schools. Only the name
is still the old one. Telugu school was started at primary level in 1930. In
course of time, it became senior secondary school. The medium was Telugu and it
was recognized as such by the Board of Secondary Education. This status
remained till 1993. Thereafter the sanction for Telugu medium was withdrawn and
the students were deprived from appearing from the examination through that
medium.
19. With
this the period of decline of the school began. At one time, the number of
students from class I to XII was 1000. In year 2002, the number of students was
reduced to 56 in the primary education. But the medium remained Telugu till
class VIII. After that it was limited to primary section but even that did not
appeal to the guardians of the students. In year 2002, it was completely
switched to Hindi. Telugu remains only as a subject till class VIII. Presently
there are about 300 students in primary section.
20.
There is no shortage of Telugu teachers. They were recruited from Andhra
Pradesh. but the difficulty was about the books. This difficulty still
continues. One of the reasons is that
the syllabus is not revised by the Board of Secondary Education for years
together. The books which have been prescribed for prose and poetry have been
removed from the syllabus for Andhra Pradesh years ago. They are not available
in the market. In support of this the current syllabus was shown. he books
which are prescribed are of the year 1988. In the syllabus the position about
Tamil, Malayalam etc. is similar. This creates difficulty not only for the
students but the paper setters also have to face the same problem.
21. The secret behind the ending the medium is also surprising. The
custom is that the answer papers of one district are sent to other districts.
Normally the answer books were sent from Bilaspur to
22. Is there a probability of Telugu becoming the medium again? The
teachers and the office bearers both of the view that it can be done. But for
this it must be kept medium till senior secondary level. The people staying in
this area still have social contacts with the people in Andhra Pradesh. By
getting the education through Telugu, they can stay in Andhra Pradesh after
marriage. But if the medium is kept only up to the primary level, it will be
difficult to get the students because the guardians do not want to burden the
child with the problem of changeover of the medium.
23. A suggestion was given that if the Chhatisgarh Board of Secondary
Education can not adopt Telugu medium, the school can be affiliated to Andhra
Pradesh Board. Though it is doubtful if Andhra
Pradesh Board will like to set up an examination centre so far away.
24. The Bengali school was started in 1942. At that time it was affiliated with Bengal Board of Secondary Education. In 1973, it got affiliated to Madhya Pradesh Board. The position is similar to that of Telugu schools. Bengali is not the medium at any stage but Bengali language is being taught from class VI to class VIII as a language subject.
25. The main problem here also is the non revision of the syllabus. Non
available books are still in he syllabus. In one class, the book published in
1978 was still prescribed.
26. It was also informed that Bengali is being taught in some schools
in Kanker and Mana. There was a one teacher school in the railway department in
Bilaspur but it has been closed now. Here also probability was expressed that
if Bengali can be kept as medium till senior secondary, the medium will attract
more students.
27. Oriya school is from class I to VIII only. It was started in 1971
and was run with Oriya medium till 1981. The number of students was limited and
hence the medium had to be changed. Presently only the alphabets of Oriya are
taught. The Government assistance was given for all the purposes till 1987 but
now it is given for the salary of the teachers. There is no provision of free
books because that is limited to the
aided and the government schools.
28. There is one Punjabi school also in Bilaspur. It could not be
visited due to lack of prior notice. In addition there are Punjabi schools in
Baikunthpur,
29.
There is nothing else to comment upon. As was to be expected State does not face
any problems in the implementation of safeguards. When the work is started,
only then the problems will be there. In Bilaspur, some complaints like the
necessity of revision of syllabus, need for mid day meals for the non
Government schools came up. More complaints were received when they are
enquired for . But for this there is need for change of mentality. The
linguistic minorities will have to wait
for some time.
13.
1. The
population of
2. Amongst
the languages spoken in the State are named Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi,
Ladakhi, and Balti. In fact the percentage of people speaking Kashmiri as per
census 1981 was 52.38 %; Dogri is 24.29; Hindi is 16.92; Punjabi 2.72; Ladakhi
1.20; and Balti 0.80 %. The number of those who had Urdu as their mother tongue
was negligible.
3. It is
informed that there are many areas where the minority languages are spoken by
more than 60 % of the total population. In all the six districts of Kashmir
Kashmiri is spoken, and in all the six districts of Jammu Dogri is spoken. In
the areas where the speakers of minority language are more than 15 %, the areas
of all the tahsils in Leh and Kargil are mentioned where Ladakhi is spoken.
4. The
Official Language of
5. It is
reported that the representations and applications are received in the minority
languages but the replies are not sent in the same language. The reason given
is that all the work in the offices is done in English.
6. There
are no separate rules for giving grants to the linguistic minority institutes.
7. The Primary
stage of education is from class I to V, of Upper Primary from class VI to VIII
and of secondary education from class IX to x. For the Class IX and X the media
are English, Hindi and Urdu. No information is given for the primary education.
It is said that the information is being collected from the Education
Department.
8. for the
Three Language Formula, it is stated that the first language is the mother
tongue. The second can be Hindi or Urdu. The third is English. Earlier the
teaching of English began from class VI but now it is being started from class
I.
9. In the
year 2002, a training programme for the teachers was organized in which
training was given in Kashmiri, Dogri and Punjabi so that the teachers can
impart instructions in these languages. The number of teachers has not been
given.
10. It is
said that the textbooks in the minority
languages are published by the
11. The
only medium for the examinations for recruitment to the State services is English.
12. The
Chief Education Officer in the district has been assigned the job of looking
after the affairs of the linguistic minorities. There is no committee for
monitoring. The question regarding the state level committee has not been
replied to.
13. It is said that the
information about the remaining questions is being obtained. Looking to this
that in the previous years, no information was received and in the reply to the
questionnaire for 39th Report, it was said that Kashmiri and Dogri are not being
used in the primary education, the information received now is encouraging. It
is hoped that the information to be sent by the Education Department will
confirm this. The Kashmir Arts and
also working for the development of Kashmiri
and Dogri. It is hoped that this will further strengthen these languages.
14.
Jharkhand
1. No
reply to the questionnaire sent in
connection with the Forty Second Report despite reminders at various levels
from Jharkhand. The Deputy Commissioner has been to Jharkhand and contacted the
officers there. Last time, though the answer was not very clear but from the
documents attached, we could find out lot of information being done for the
linguistic minorities. Specially it was found that good work is being done for
education though the tribal languages. It is hoped that this has made further
progress.
2. We
will try to get the information from Jharkhand so that we can share it with
others.
15. Tamil Nadu
1.
The population of Tamil Nadu is 6,24,05,679 as per the 2001 census whereas it was 5,58,58,946 in 1991 census. The number
of speakers of main languages are as follows –
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Tamil |
4,84,34,44 |
86-71 |
|
Telugu |
45,18,109 |
8-09 |
|
Kannada |
12,08,296 |
2-16 |
|
Urdu |
10,36,660 |
1-86 |
|
Malayalam |
6,61,137 |
1-18 |
2. In addition, there are a fair number of speakers of Sourashtram
language. Their number as per census 1991 is 2,16,364. They mainly reside in
3. There are no districts where the number of linguistic minorities is
more than 60 % of the total population of the districts. For the areas where
they are more than 15% of the population, a list is given. These areas have
Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam as their
languages. The list can be seen on our website.
4. Tamil is the official language of the State. There is no other official language. Important rules etc. are said to be published in the minority languages. It is said that the electoral rolls are published in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam in their respective areas. The number of rules, regulations, if any, published in minority languages is not specified.
5. It is said that the representations are received in the minority languages. But the replies are sent in Tamil or English. It is said that all the people know Tamil language, both written and reading. Also that no arrangements have been made for translation.
6. It is said that for he recognition of the linguistic minorities institutions, the guidelines have been framed. The schools have to make an application within three months of opening (which means that prior permission is not required). A certificate is to be enclosed that they will not ask for any Government grants or aid including teaching grants from the Government forever (since all grants have been withdrawn since 1-6-91). It is stated that the minority schools are exempted from reservations and the roaster register is not required to be maintained. The minority institutes are not expected to create an endowment of Rs. one lakh which other institutes have to do.
7. While the guidelines are welcome, it should be examined if the stipulation about not giving grants to the minority institutions can be relaxed in the case of elementary schools. They are the part of the basic facilities and the Government is committed for the universalisation of education at that level.
8. The number of linguistic minority institutions being given grants in
aid is 98 (Telugu – 22; Urdu – 44; Malayalam – 26; Hindi – 4; Gujarati – 4).
9. For the elementary stage of education (class I to VIII), the minimum number of students is 15. It is said that the regional language is started from class I in these institutions. This, however, does not appear to be correct as the State is going by the two language formula which means the mother tongue and English.
10. The number of students at this
level are as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Telugu |
391 |
37,793 |
985 |
|
Malayalam |
122 |
12,159 |
176 |
|
Urdu |
306 |
35,283 |
761 |
|
Kannada |
54 |
3,367 |
164 |
|
Hindi |
4 |
691 |
15 |
|
Gujarati |
2 |
70 |
2 |
11. The secondary stage of education is
said to be High Schools for class VI to X and
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Telugu |
29 |
6,576 |
153 |
|
Urdu |
22 |
9,797 |
141 |
|
Malayalam |
11 |
2,048 |
51 |
|
Hindi |
9 |
1,302 |
60 |
|
Kannada |
5 |
1,316 |
41 |
|
Gujarati |
2 |
33 |
5 |
12. These statistics are for the linguistic minority schools. Last year
the information about general schools was also given but this year they have
been left out. Their number last year was Urdu – 38; Malayalam – 66; Telugu –
88; Kannada – 13; Hindi – 36; and Arabic – 6. Why these have been left out is
not clear. Their strength should also be taken into account.
13. It was informed that the medium of instructions at the class XI and
XII are Tamil and English only. Telugu and Kannada are there as language
subjects.
14. One of he safeguards provided that three months prior to the admission to the schools, a register should be opened in the linguistic minority areas wherein the students (or their guardians) can enter the choice of language in which they will like to be educated. This would have enabled the Director of Education to make such adjustments of teachers as may be necessary. It was also intended that, if necessary, some inter school adjustment will be done so that the students can get the language of their choice. But the reply does not appear to be based on this sort of registers. It is merely sad that rule 21 does not mention such a register. The rules can be amended to include this provision so that this information is available to the Government and the Director of Education. The village Education Registers under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan are for a different purpose. However, if by some insertion of columns, this choice of language can be included, there is no need to maintain a separate register.
15. The State follows the two language formula i.e. Tamil and English. For the linguistic minorities, it is presumably mother tongue and English. It has been suggested earlier that they may be allowed to take Tamil in addition to the other two languages so that they can learn the regional language which is also the official language. The point has been further considered from another point of view later on in this Report.
16. There is no shortage of teachers. It is reported that Government permitted to fill up all the secondary grade vacancies in the primary schools, including the minority languages vacancies during the year 2003 – 04. Accordingly proper steps have been taken to fill up all eligible vacancies.
17. However, in Krishnagiri district, during the visit, the shortage of teachers who can teach through minority languages was referred to by many of the participants. Sometimes, it was pointed out, the persons are transferred along with the post. The vacancies, arising out of the retirement of teachers, are not filled up. The reason sometimes given is that the teacher pupil ratio does not justify the number of teachers. It was pointed out that the Government have accepted that there will be minority language teachers if there are 10 students at the primary level and 15 students at the subsequent level on the average for the classes in the school. The strict application of the 1:40 ratio is not proper under the circumstances.
18. It was pointed out that in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, 8000 posts of the teachers have been sanctioned but there are no Telugu teachers in this sanction. This needs to be looked into.
19. Facilities exist for the training of the minority language teachers in
Krishnagiri,
20. It is reported that Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation has ensured the availability of the minority language books at the primary and secondary stage of education and there is no shortage. The subject books are translated by expert committee appointed by the Director of School Education. It must be acknowledged that in the visit of the Commissioner to various places, the shortage of textbooks was not reported.
21. The Academy for Urdu has been set up in year 2000 but it is not yet active. In the year 2003 – 04, no budget was allotted for it. Last year the Academies for Telugu and Malayalam were also mentioned but they were also not active. This time, their names have been dropped. It is hoped that all the Academies ca be made active to promote the minority languages.
22. The possession of adequate knowledge of Tamil is not insisted upon at the time of recruitment to public services. However, after appointment, they have to pass a test of proficiency within a period of two years. The standard prescribed is that of the VIII standard for those whose qualifications are VII standard and above and of the class V for those under it. In Krishnagiri district, this standard was also found be too high.
23. At the secretariat level there is a department for looking after the welfare of the Backward classes, Most Backward Classes and Minority Welfare Department which looks after the linguistic minorities also. It has its field officers in the districts who are in charge of the linguistic minorities also. State has constitutes a States Minority Commission. It monitors the implementation of safeguards for linguistic minorities also. The tasks allocated to the Commission include all the points which have been mentioned in the list of safeguards given in Chapter 3. Some of these are tasks which can only be done at the Government level. It would be better if these are given a fresh look and monitoring is done for the tasks which are performed at the district level like availability of schools, teachers, textbooks; reply to representations in minority languages; acceptance of documents in minority languages in the courts and for registration.
24. Though it would not be proper to suggest who should be the members in the Commission, it is just mentioned by the way that in Maharashtra, a suggestion was given that if the work is allotted to the Minority Commission, it should have members representing such communities.
25. The Commission has been meeting regularly. The Commission is submitting annual reports to the Government and these are placed before the Assembly. Some of the recommendations of interest to the linguistic minorities are –
1.
Grant of minority status to the
2. To appoint teachers for Geography, History,Economics and Physical education in
26. It is reported that the linguistic minorities are made aware of the their rights through website, citizen charter and brochures. However, the citizen charter enclosed does not say anything specific about the linguistic minorities. It is expected that the concessions given to them in respect of lesser number of students. Non requirement of permission for opening more schools, concessions for recruitment to services should be listed.
27. During the visit of the Commissioner to some areas, representations were received and certain demands made in the meetings held. The notes regarding these meetings and visits have been sent to the Government separately. It is proposed to list here certain points which were repeatedly mentioned.
1. Telugu New Year Day should be declared a holiday. (Probably this can be done as a local holiday in those areas where Telugu people are in good number.)
2. Telugu should be declared as a classical language. (It is not clear what purpose is served by such declaration or what is the criteria for such declaration. Nowhere it is mentioned what privileges a classical language gets over other languages.)
3. In some schools both Telugu and Kannada students were being taught in the same section though their strength justified opening of separate sections for the two linguistic groups.
4. In Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, the material for training is in Tamil and the trainers also know Tamil only.
5. In balvadi schools, Tamil is being taught. Minority languages should be used for linguistic minorities in balvadis also. (This is indeed an important point. The raison d’etre of teaching in primary section is that learning through mother tongue is easier. It is all the more essential for the pre school era.)
6. In Villipuram, Urdu speakers pointed out that the strict appliance of 1:40 ratio in calculating the number of teachers to be provided is not fair. This ratio does not work for the linguistic minorities where the number of students is less than the normal intake of the students in Tamil schools. It was informed that Supreme Court has said, in year 2002, that a class for the linguistic minority can be opened for four students also. (The Commissioner is not aware of such a judgment and further information will have to be sought.)
7. Books and magazines supplied to libraries should be in minority languages in proportion to their population.
8. Gujarati has been discontinued as second
language by the Board for Secondary Education. Though the number of students is
small but for the sake of the students coming on migration from
9. Documents in minority languages should be accepted for registration.
10. Electoral rolls in minority language have many defects. Care should be taken to compile these correctly.
11. Ballot papers for elections to local bodies should be published in minority languages.
12. Agenda of panchayats and panchayat unions should be in Telugu language.
13. Officers with knowledge of minority language should be posted in the linguistic minority areas.
14. Sign boards on government offices, temples etc. are in Tamil only. Telugu should also be used for these.
15. Correspondence in minority languages is not being accepted in the taluk and Collector offices.
16. Transport department gives the destinations etc. in Telugu in some buses only. It was also pointed out that the two wheelers and the three wheelers are queried about their knowledge of Tamil. (But this is not fair. There may be Tamil passengers who don’t know other languages. Their interest is also of importance.)
17. Police Department especially and other departments generally are not allowing candidates for various posts to use languages other than Tamil as their medium for recruitment. (This was a persistent demand and it goes against the declared policy of the Government and needs looking into.)
18. In Krishnagiri, it was informed that in 1992, a meetings were held to consider the grievances of the linguistic minorities and certain decisions taken. such meetings should be regularly held. (This is recommended for all the states and all the districts in a state. It will take care of the minor problems.)
19. Pamphlets regarding the welfare schemes should be published in the minority languages.
20. Safeguards for linguistic minorities should be publicly displayed on notice boards in taluk offices. (This may be a sure method to make people aware of the safeguards.)
28. Another point which agitated the representatives was the delay in recognition of the institutions as minority institutions. In some cases the earlier institutions run by the same agencies had the status granted to them but the newer institutions were not being granted that status. The Commissioner pointed out that Tamil Nadu is the pioneer in framing the rules following the decision of the Supreme Court and apart from Andhra Pradesh, he is not aware of its being done by other states. In view of this there should not be any problem in disposal of the applications for recognition.
29. In
Telegu or the Sourashtra script. The publishing in Tamil script means introduction of diacritical marks to distinguish the letters not found in Tamil script.
29. A distinction has to be made between the minority languages which
are the regional languages of some other state and the languages which are
confined to a small area. These minor languages can not draw sustenance from other
sources and have to depend upon their own resources and the assistance of the
concerned State Governments. These languages may not be in a position to be
adopted as a medium even at the primary stage of education immediately but can
be developed, in time, for such role. These can be adopted to introduce the
children to education, gradual change over to the regional language as medium
for the subjects but continued as a subject. This is all that the Sourashtra
Samaj demands and the demand is justified. The principle of 'all or nothing' is
not applicable to these languages.
31. There are some teachers from the Sourashtra Samaj who are taking up
the teaching of Sourashtra language after the school hours to such persons who
are desirous of learning it. This is done at the level of spoken word.
Transition to written documents is expected.
32. The question is who should take the initiative to propagate the
minority language. Commissioner believes that it is the primary responsibility
of the protagonists of the language. It is urged that the individuals who have
committed themselves to the development of the language should prepare the
necessary material with the help of the teachers and then submit it to the
authorities. Those who use and teach the language are the best judges as to
complexity of formation of sentences and grade the teaching
of the language accordingly.
33. The Government have the responsibility to encourage such groups and ensure that their efforts are rewarded. Financial resources can be a stumbling block. Grants have to be given for the development of the languages to appropriate organizations. In Karnataka, academies have been set up for the development of Tulu and Kodagu. The Government of Tamil Nadu can also do so, or in lieu thereof help the local organizations. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan provides funds for the development of study materials and this funds can be used for the purpose.
34. A reference is to be made to the teaching of Arvial Tamil. It is
expected to teach the students the technical words in Tamil so that they do not
have problem in changeover at a later date. But the problem is that there are
no teachers and no examinations. A lot of effort has gone in to prepare and
publish the books. Without an examination to judge the achievements, the
purpose may not be served. The students, it is found, find it difficult to
follow. It would be much better that simple Tamil is taught to these students
so that they can pick it up better and can use it in normal life. The
scientific and technical terms can be picked up later but not the basic nuances
of a language at a later date. This might mean amendment to the two language
formula but it will be to the advantage of the people of Tamil Nadu.
35. One interesting comment passed was that these established schools are losing out to the matriculation schools. There are in all five schools here within a small area. The difference is that these established schools believe in teaching while the other schools are interested in coaching only. They prepare the students for examinations and for rote. The teaching means involvement with the students and much more than merely learning answers by nothing more.
36. Overall, though it will appear from the long list of demands that much is amiss in Tamil Nadu, but this will be a wrong interpretation. The saying is that the bickering is between those who care for each other. If they were indifferent to each other, northing will happen as indeed is the case with some of the states. When nothing is available, what is the point in asking for more. But the way more is asked for is the assurance that they will get what they are asking for. We hope that Tamil Nadu will be able to remove these small irritations and carry on with its tradition of being in the vanguard of the movement for fair play for the linguistic minorities.
16. Tripura
1. The
population of Tripura in the census 2001 is 31,91,168. In the census 1991, it
was 27,57,205. The position of the various languages is as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Bengali |
18,99,162 |
68-88 |
|
Kokborok |
6,47,847 |
23-50 |
|
Chakma |
95,250 |
3-46 |
|
Hindi |
45,803 |
1-66 |
|
Mogh |
27,966 |
1-01 |
|
Halam |
24,123 |
0-88 |
|
Manipuri |
19,737 |
0-72 |
|
Bishnupriya Manipuri |
18,996 |
0-69 |
2. But the
speakers of Bishnupriya Manipuri say that their number has been shown less than
what it is.
3. It is said
that there are no areas where the
proportion of the linguistic minorities is more than sixty percent. But there
are areas where it is more than 15 percent. Kokborok (or Tripuri) is spoken by
28.82 % in South Tripura; 23.22 5 in West Tripura; and 18.15 % in
4. According to
the Official Language Act 1964, Kokborok will be used along with Bengali for all the bills and the amendments to be
produced in the Vidhan Sabha; for all
the Acts; for all the rules and regulations. Rules, regulation or the
notifications are published in Kokborok, the answer to this question has not
been given. This has been referred to in earlier Reports also. Eve if it was
not written so in the Official Language Act, even then it would have been
correct to do so for information to the general people. here it is not being
done despite the directions of the Act to do so.
5. It is said that no representations or applications are received in the minority languages and the question of replying in them does not arise.
6. There is a
separate provision for the registration of the linguistic minority institutes.
The main difference is that these schools can have lesser number of students
than the normal schools. The list is kept with the Director, Education. %87
institutes of Kokborok language have been given recognition. Nothing has been
said about other languages.
7. The primary
education is from class I to V and upper primary from class VI to VIII. In
these, besides Bengali, Kokborok, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Manipuri, Halam and
Chakma are used for teaching. Bishnupriya Manipuri and Manipuri are taught from
class I to III; Halam from class I to II; and Chakma in
8. The teaching
of Bengali is from class I only. For the primary education the information s
given bout Kokborok only in which there are 72 Government schools and 515 run
by the local bodies. No information i given for other languages whereas last year
this information was given. Even for Kokborok, the information about the
students and teachers is not given.
9. In the secondary education whish is limited to class IX and X, Bengali, English and Hindi are the media of instruction. In 2 schools Kokborok is taught where there are 12 teachers, and 258 students . Obviously looking to the fact that the population of Kokborok speakers is almost one fourth, the number of schools is too low. A Commission has been constituted for development of languages. It is hoped that they will enquire into the reasons for this.
10. No registers are maintained in the schools for ascertaining the choice of the students for language.
11. In the Three Language Formula, mother tongue is the first language. English, Bengali, Hindi, Kokborok and Lushai are there as second languages. Bengali and Hindi are there as the third languages. English is taught from the first year itself. The State Government have said that there are enough teachers to teach these languages. Seats have been reserved in DIETs for training of teachers. In Kokborok, 300 teachers were trained last year. There is o information about other languages.
12. The question is how many students choose which language. This information will show how many persons adopt the mother tongue as their first language and then only it can be seen if the number of teachers is sufficient or not. It will be proper to collect this information.
13. It is said that there is no shortage of textbooks and they reach the students in time. The textbooks are published by Board of Secondary Education.
14. The State Government have set up a tribal cell in the State council of Education, research and Training (SCERT) for development of Kokborok. Its budget is part of the normal budget of the Council. The Council also works for other minority languages also. There is no academy for any language. Neither is there any scheme for assistance to any non official organization.
15. The media for recruitment examinations are English and Bengali. The knowledge of Bengali is essential for entry in to service but its standard is different for different level of posts.
16. State Education Department looks after the arrangements for the safeguards. Director, SCERT is the Nodal Officer. There is no committee for review of the safeguards The review is done by the Department itself. Assistance is also sought from the people knowing these languages.
17. No officer has been nominated at the district level for this work. Neither is there a committee. There is no Minority Commission in the State.
18. It is reported that district administration and the Panchayati Raj Institutions are used for giving information to the linguistic minorities. Information is also given through notice boards at important places.
19. The State Government have informed that there are no problems in implementation of the safeguards. Last year, it was informed that the State has constituted a Commission to consider the development of the minority languages in future. A doubt was then expressed in this context that its members are those persons who are known for their opposition to the tribal languages. It was pleaded that representatives of the linguistic minorities should also be kept in the Commission. It is hoped that the Commission will discharge its duty impartially. It is also hoped that the Commission has completed its work and has submitted its report. Commissioner will also like to be aware of the conclusions as they may be useful for other states also.
19. Overall, it is difficult to say, in the absence of statistics, how much is being done for the linguistic minorities. But some thing is being done is apparent from the previous Reports.
17.
Nagaland
1. Nagaland is another State which has not been able to reply to the questionnaire sent in connection with the 42nd Report despite a number of reminders at all the levels. The State has a large number of tribal languages and is known to be using many of them at the first stage of the education. The work is done at the level of the tribal communities which is the best way to do it. But due to the non receipt of the reply, we will not be able to throw light on the latest position. It is hoped that we can get some information which will help us assess the situation and to share it with others.
2. We
will keep on trying for getting the information and it is hoped that next
Report about Nagaland will be more meaningful.
18.
1. No reply has been received from
2. The population of
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Bengali |
5,85,41,519 |
88-98 |
|
Hindi |
44,79,170 |
6-81 |
|
Urdu |
14,55,649 |
2-21 |
|
Nepali |
8,60,403 |
1-31 |
3. The State Government have stated that there are no areas where the minority language is spoken by more than 60 percent of the population. But there are areas where it is spoken by more than 15 percent. These include district of Darjeeling where Nepali is spoken. Jalpaigudi and Kolkata are the districts where Hindi is spoken. In the previous Reports, some towns were also named where Hindi and Urdu speakers are spoken by more than 15 percent of the total population but these have not been included this time.
4. Bengali and English are the Official Languages of the State. But in
5. The State Government have intimated that the representations and
applications which are received in minority language are being replied in the same
language.
6. There are no specific guidelines for the recognition of the minority
institutes in the state. The registration is done on the basis of merit.
Earlier it was said that the guidelines of Tamil Nadu are being studied with a
view to adopt them. Probably this study has now been given up. The position of
the various registered organisations is presently as follows.
|
Language |
Primary School |
Secondary School |
Other Institutions |
|
Hindi |
801 |
& |
71 |
|
Urdu |
219 |
& |
12 |
|
Oriya |
14 |
& |
& |
|
Telugu |
18 |
& |
& |
|
Nepali |
775 |
& |
1 |
7. Primary Education is said
to be from class I to IV. But it is also said that adopting the all
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
801 |
1,97,656 |
3,855 |
|
Urdu |
219 |
65,111 |
981 |
|
Oriya |
14 |
2,552 |
76 |
|
Telugu |
18 |
4,289 |
& |
|
Nepali |
775 |
1,24,808 |
2,862 |
8. The number of the schools has also been given district wise. But that information and this does not agree. For example 801 schools have been shown for Hindi whereas the district information gives the number as 1089. Similarly 219 schools are shown for Urdu but the district wise information shows it to be 301. As against this the number of Nepali schools are slightly less than that given here i.e. 762. In addition 61 schools of Oriya; 22 of Telugu; and 76 for other languages including Santhali are shown. The number of students in the table are also sometimes more and sometimes less than shown here.
9. The number of teachers and students, language wise, for the Primary schools is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
1,189 |
3,867 |
1,89,346 |
|
Nepali |
762 |
2,467 |
96,759 |
|
Urdu |
391 |
988 |
47,234 |
|
Oriya |
61 |
157 |
7,440 |
|
Telugu |
22 |
64 |
3,231 |
|
Others (including Santhali) |
120 |
249 |
11,371 |
10. The secondary stage of education is stated to be from class V to class X in which Upper Primary is included. The medium of instruction is said to be Bengali, English, Hindi, Urdu, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu and Nepali. The Board of Secondary Education, holds the examinations only through Bengali, English, Hindi and Urdu. The question papers are also given in these languages. It is not clear what is the status of other languages listed above. Are they only up to class VIII. The position may be clarified in ths respect. The number of secondary schools is stated as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
308 |
4,591 |
3,21,061 |
|
Nepali |
153 |
2,469 |
1,09,772 |
|
Urdu |
71 |
1,043 |
44,489 |
|
Oriya |
14 |
207 |
9,378 |
|
Telugu |
6 |
83 |
4,107 |
|
Others
(including Santhali) |
12 |
165 |
8,542 |
11. There is no arrangements for maintenance of registers for advance registration of the choice of language by the students.
12. The first language in
the three Language Formula can be from Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Oriya and
Telugu. The second language is English and the third Santhali, Arabic or Hindi.
The copy of the Government orders is not available. Santhali has not been
mentioned as a choice for first language. Probably this is taught at primary
level only. It is also not clear whether, for those whose mother tongue is not
Bengali, can take it as the third language. The State has stated that the
number of teachers is adequate. for Urdu, there is training institute at
Nallikul (Hoogly) and for Hindi at Salkia (
13. The shortage of textbooks is not reported. It is stated that Board of Secondary Education, Council for Senior Secondary Education, Madarasa Education Board, SCERT, and Directorate of School Education are responsible for the publication of books. It has to be clarified as to which organization works for which classes or languages.
14. Hindi and
15. The media for entry in the services are English and Bengali. To enter the service, one has to know writing, reading and speaking of Bengali. For those whose mother tongue is not Bengali have to pass a departmental examination of he standard of class X. This examination is said to be departmental examination. This suggests that the examination has to be passed after entry in to service. Therefore the exact position shall have to be ascertained.
16.
Department of Minorities Development and Welfare has been constitutes in the
State to look after the work of linguistic minorities. A State Level Advisory
Committee has been constituted on June 4, 2004 under the chairmanship of the
Chief Minister. This will look after the programmes relating to both the
religious and linguistic minorities. The Departmental Minister, an MP, Chairman
Waqf Board, Chairman Minorities Development and Finance Corporation, Chairman
Minorities Commission,
17. Whether a meeting of this committee has been held or not has not been intimated.
18. There is no specific machinery at the district level. The information to the linguistic minorities is given through the Collector but no pamphlets or handbills have been published.
19. The Commissioner has received a letter
from Indigenous Lepcha tribal Association in which it is said that Lepcha
language should also be included in the schools and colleges of
20. It was expected that with the constitution of Minorities Welfare Department, there will be some improvement in the work and in sending information about the work being done. so far as reporting is concerned, there is no improvement but it is hoped that the work is picking up.
19.
1. No reply has been received from
2. A communication has been received which
purports to be reply for the questionnaire pertaining to the 38th, 39th, 40th
and 41st Reports. However, the enclosure are only for the 40th Report. The
reply has been sent by the Welfare Department but it is said that the
Department of Higher Education and Languages is the Nodal Department for the
linguistic minorities. The enclosures are thus only the photo copies of the
replies sent earlier by various departments. Hence they are barely legible and,
at times, not legible at all.
3. With this background, an attempt has been
made to analyze the reply received. Obviously there are gaps in the report.
4. The population is shown as 1,87,64,461
with Punjabi as mother tongue and 14,78, 993 with Hindi as mother tongue
accounting for 92.22 and 7.29 % of population respectively, total population as
per 1991 census being 2,02,81,060.
5. Punjabi is the regional language.
Ferozepur district has 19.14 % of the population with mother tongue as Hindi.
No tahsil level analysis is attempted. In reply to an earlier questionnaire,
Ferozepur,
6. The Official Language Act prescribes Punjabi as the official language. However, Section 8 of the Act says that "Without prejudices to the provisions of the Act, the State Government shall take suitable steps to develop the Hindi language in the State." It is to be seen what steps have been taken in pursuance of these directions.
7. There is a Translation Bureau at
8. Punjabi is said to be a pre requisite for recruitment to the
services.
9. The machinery for implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic
minorities is said to be the Secretary, Higher Education and Languages.
10. There is no linguistic minority school in the State.
11. No Advance Registers are maintained.
12. In reply to the question for Three Language Formula, it is said
that Punjabi, Hindi and English are being taught in the State primary schools.
Punjabi is the first language in the Government primary schools. Second
language is Hindi and the third is English. Normally we speak of the Three
Language Formula in the context of secondary education, or in the present day
terminology, upper primary. It was not expected that the children will be
subjected to the multiplicity of languages in the primary stage. Here we are
talking about three languages in Primary stage. What happens at the higher
levels is not specified.
13. Regarding availability of the teachers, it is said that only Punjabi, Hindi and English are being taught and, therefore, minority language teachers are not required. It is really not clear what the Punjab Government considers to be the minority languages. Further it is said that only qualified and trained teachers are appointed and there are no specific further training facilities are required. Textbooks are published by the State Education Board and it is said that there is no shortage.
14. There are no separate rules for
recognition of minority schools. Two institutes are said to be recognized. They
had 78 teachers and 2,730 students. These are
15. Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu and English are said
to be the media of instruction in class IX to XII. A list of 20 institutes is
attached (but not legible).
16. Attention is drawn towards the note of
the meeting which the Commissioner had with the officers of the Punjab
Government. The salient points of this meeting, which reinforce the points made
above, are listed here.
17. The Commissioner explained the rationale
of the facilities to be made available to the linguistic minorities. He said
that if the population is more than fifteen percent in an area (here the unit
is tahsil or the municipal area and not the district) – Ferozepur in the case
of
18. The information should be called for from the linguistic minority educational institutes in these areas. These should include the Government schools, the schools run by the local bodies or by the private organizations, whether aided or not. The English medium schools should not be included in the reply. It was noted that in the previous years the information has only been given for Urdu and not for Hindi. Information about Hindi medium schools should also be given. It was stated that there are no Government schools but there are private schools with Hindi medium. Their data can be given. It can also be examined why there are no Government schools with Hindi medium when there is a demand for them.
19. In Urdu also the information needs to be
checked up. The number of the students in secondary schools is shown more than
that in the primary schools.
20. An opinion was expressed that the local
persons themselves prefer to adopt the regional language as medium so that they
are not left out of the reckoning in the job market. It was explained that such
a situation was envisaged and it was never considered appropriate that any one
should be forced to learn through a particular language. It was proposed that
each school in the areas where the linguistic minorities live in substantial
number should maintain Advance Registers wherein the choice of the parents
regarding the language to be taught or the medium can be specified. Depending
upon these choices, arrangements can be made for teaching in a particular
language. Orders, therefore, should be issued to maintain such registers.
21. It was also stated that due to some
extraneous considerations, the mother tongue was not returned correctly. The
Commissioner said that this may be so but the choice of the person concerned
has to be respected. There have been similar complaints elsewhere also. For
example, in Tamil Nadu, some Telugu people claim that their number is not
correctly reflected in the census. The only thing to be done is that it should
be ensured that there is no attempt on the part of the enumerators to impose
their own views and the choice expressed by a person is correctly indicated. if
it is felt that a person is deliberately giving wrong choice for mother tongue,
then the main problem which generates this anomaly should be removed.
22. Overall,
11.
1. The population of
2. It is said that there are no districts where the number of
linguistic minorities is more than the sixty percent of the total population.
But this is not the situation now. Darbhanga and Madhubani are two such
districts. Maithili should be declared as the additional official language for
these districts. And the Government offices should attempt to work in this
language.
3. The
districts with more than 15 % of the population belonging to linguistic
minorities are said to be Araria, Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar and Darbhanga
which the case in the context of Urdu. four districts listed above will qualify
for the Maithili language. There is no information about Bengali. Probably
there are no such regions.
4. The official language of the State is Hindi. In addition Urdu has been declared as official language for seven purposes. These seven purposes are –
1. Receipt of representations
and their replies.
2. receipt of documents in the offices.
3. Publication of rules/ regulations and notices
4. Issue of important letters and orders
5. Publications of important advertisements
6. Publication of Gazettes
7. Exhibition of sign boards at important places and offices.
5. The
information about the rules and notifications issued in Urdu has not been
given. Only it has been stated that representations are received in minority
languages and it is also said that their replies are also given in the same
language. it will be in order to ask what arrangements for translation have
been made. earlier it was said that Urdu directorate has been constituted for
translation. It is worth knowing if the directorate has extension in the
districts also.
6. There are no separate
arrangements for the registration of the linguistic minorities institutions.
They are being registered under the normal rules. Bt it has not been stated how
many institutions have got such recognition. It is only said that “information
is being collected”.
7. It is
said that the medium of instruction for primary education is Urdu, Bengali and
Maithili in addition to Hindi. But no statistics are given. Only this has been
said that “information is being collected”. This is also the position for the
schools. students and teachers.
8.
Similarly the medium for secondary education is said to be Hindi, English and
Urdu but the old sentence is repeated that “information is being collected”.
9. Same
sentence is repeated for teachers but it is not known how “yes” has been said
about the availability of textbooks which means that there is no shortage of
books for minority languages and they are also available to the students in
time. It is a matter of surprise that when all the other information is being
collected, how this information is available.
10. The
situation about the Advance Registration is also the same i.e. “information is
being collected”.
11. In the
Three Language Formula, Hindi, Urdu and English are the three languages.
Bengali and Maithili are not mentioned. English is started from class IV. It is
to be noted that Hindi is mentioned as first language and not the mother
tongue.
12.
13. It was requested that information about
the activities of these academies and are listed which, in accordance with
expectations, development; book publication and
propagation of Urdu/ Bengali.
14. The
media for examinations for recruitment are said to be Hindi, English and Urdu.
The question papers are prepared in Hindi and English. It will be fair to ask
why they are not prepared in Urdu. Probably this will have a relation to the
number of examinees taking Urdu as a medium. It will be in order to ask the
number of such candidates. The knowledge of Hindi is said to be pre requisite
for entry in the services but its standard is up to the secondary level of
education.
15.
Minority welfare Department is the department responsible for the work relating
to the linguistic minorities. The Secretary of the Department is the Nodal
Officer. No committee has been constituted at the State level for review . At
the district level, minority cells have been set up. No meetings at the
Secretariat level or by the Collector have been held. Minority Commission has
also been set up and the work relating to the linguistic minorities has been
assigned to it. It is said that its annual report is under print.
16. On the
enquiry about the pamphlets, it has been replied that they are informed about
the safeguards through the local newspapers. Otherwise the well known reply is
there that “information is being collected”.
17. It is
obvious that only the formality of sending a reply has been carried out. There has been no
attempt to obtain information from any department. It is not clear why the reply to the
questionnaire sent in August 2004 was detained till the last week of January
2005. “Information is being collected”, this reply could have been sent in
August itself.
18. In
these circumstances, the reply sent by
22. Madhya Pradesh
1. The figure which Madhya
Pradesh has given in its reply pertain tot the erstwhile Madhya Pradesh. But
they have changed now. The principal language, Hindi is still the language of
85 % of the people. But percentage of Bhili/ Bhilodi has gone up to 4.23 %.
Marathi speaking persons have a percentage of 2.34, Urdu of 2.81 %, Korku of
0.67 % and Sindhi of 0.61 %. Some Gondi areas have gone to Chhatisgarh and ,
therefore, the percentage has gone down to 1.88 %. It is to be mentioned that
Marathi, Gondi or Korku speaking persons are concentrated in some districts and
tahsils. Sindhi is mainly spoken in the urban area of
2. As in the previous
years, this year also only the names of tahsils Huzur, district
3. It is said that no applications are received in any language other
than the principal (and the official) language Hindi. It is said that some
senior officers do not have knowledge of
minority language and, therefore, they are unable to give their views
about them. This difficulty can only be solved if there is
appointment of the clerical staff which knows minority language in the
tahsils/ districts where minority language is spoken by a large number of
persons. The notes ad the drafts will be in Hindi but the replies should be in
those languages.
4. There are no separate rules regarding the recognition of the institutes. But for giving recognition to the madarasas the Madarasa Board has been set up. During a visit the Chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Minority Commission said that the powers to recognize the minority institutes have been given to them and this includes the linguistic minorities institutes also. In the December 2004 issue of the Commission’s newsletter, it is reported that five schools of Gujarati community, three of Sindhi community and one of Marathi community have been given the certificates of their being minority institutes by the Commission. The State Government would like to confirm this as what will be the legal position after the registration of these institutes. (this matter has come up later also.)
5. It is said that for grants to the Urdu institutions, 446 proposals have been approved earlier. 457 applications are pending. 200 fresh proposals have been received. It appears that all these proposals are regarding the madarasas which can have the qualifications for getting the grants from Government of India.
6. So far as the
recognition is concerned, 2533 applications have been approved. Since these
madarasas are all religious institutes, it is not proper to show them as the
linguistic minority institutes. Where the provision for teaching of
Mathematics, Science etc. have been made through Urdu, it is a different
matter.
7. It is said that primary education is given through Marathi and Urdu. for this there should be minimum of 10 students in a class and 40 students in the school. At present there are 339 schools for Urdu where 27,916 students are receiving education. For them 812 teachers have been appointed. for Marathi, there are 63 schools in which there are 7,862 students and 274 teachers.
8. At the secondary stage also, education is given through Urdu and Marathi. Question papers are also set in these languages. Presently, there are 164 schools for Urdu in which there are 6,442 students and 238 teachers. The number of schools for Marathi is 121. There are 16,926 students in them for whom there are 428 teachers. The figures for Marathi are a bit confusing. The number of secondary schools is shown to be more than primary schools. It is possible that the described secondary school have also the primary education wings. The correct position should be intimated.
9. It is noted that nothing has been said about Sindhi whereas in the previous years, it was also shown as a medium for instruction though the number of students was not given even then. Not to talk about Bhili or Gondi was to be expected. In discussions with the Commissioner Public Instruction, it was said that Sindhi medium is in use in two
High schools. One of them is situated in Bairagarh in
district
10. The position about the madarasas is not clear. About 4,000 madarasas are registered in Madhya Pradesh. Out of this 446 madarasas are being given grants under the Madarasa Up gradation Scheme. Besides giving one teacher to these madrasas, free books are also being supplied to them. These teachers are also given 15 days training for teaching through Urdu medium. Under the intensive field programme, Rs. 1.26 crores is also being given so that extra rooms can be built in these schools. This scheme has now been included in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Thirty three percent of the funds in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan can be used for providing infra structure. It was also informed that this scheme has been entrusted to the State Education Centre (the new name for SCERT). It was also informed that proposals to give recognition to another 356 madarasas have been sent to Central Government. How many students have benefited from these madarasa, if this information can also be given, then it will be better.
11.
Discussions were also held with the Principal Secretary of Tribal Welfare
Department regarding the preparation of books in tribal languages in Madhya
Pradesh and their use in the primary education. He expressed agreement with
this view and assured that workshops will be held for this. It was also
requested that action taken to preserve the culture of the tribal people should
also be intimated.
12. To find out the linguistic preferences of the students, it was provided that in the areas where the linguistic minorities reside in sizeable number, registers for advance registration should be kept through which the preference of the students can be assessed before he session starts. This information can be used to appoint the teachers of that language in the appropriate schools. But such registers are not maintained. This should be considered.
13. In the answer to the question about the Three Language Formula, following information has been given. The first language is said to be Hindi, English, Urdu and Marathi. The second language adds Sanskrit and Sindhi to the list for the first language. For the third language Gujarati has further been added. No South Indian language has been named. This Three Language Formula is different from the earlier one of the previous year. It is hoped that it is correct. English is taught from class three where it is not the first language. Earlier it was said that English is taught from class I. It is hoped that that meaningless decision has been given up.
14. About the Urdu teachers, it is stated that there are 1917 posts sanctioned for it. Out of these 200 posts are vacant. Another 538 posts have also been asked for. This information is not given in respect of Marathi. It is said that directions have been given for filling up the vacancies.
15. In this context, it has been intimated
by the representatives of the Urdu speaking people that there are many
vacancies of Urdu teachers in the colleges also. In
16. There is demand for appointment of Sindhi teachers in the schools for the Sindhi language. It is also said that there should be promotion avenues for them. The serving teachers are retiring and no new appointments are being done in their place.
17. Regarding the training of the teachers, it is said that Madarasa Board is working for their training. No information has been given as to how many teachers were trained last year.
18. In the year 2000, the State Council for Education, Research and Training (SCERT) had worked for development of Bridge Language Inventory language dictionaries in Shahdol, Jhabua and Raigarh (now in Chhatisgarh). More information should be sent for this innovation.
19. It is said that the textbooks in the minority languages are available and are reaching the students in time. The principal responsibility for publishing he books is that of Textbook Corporation but the Madarasa Board is also publishing some books.
20. According to the
representatives of the Sindhi community, the books are not available in the
classes where it is taught. Somehow, the job is done by getting the photo
copies of the books from
21.
22. By talking to some
representatives, it was found that there is another organization by the name of
Iqbal Adbi Markaz which is being
assisted by the
Government. A doubt was also expressed that the allocated amount was not being
used for development of Urdu. The Government are requested that they should
consider this and send information about the Iqbal Adbi Markaz.
23. Last year
information was given about another organization Garib Nawaz Foundation which
was given about Rs. 40 lakhs. The activities undertaken by it should be
intimated.
24. It is said
that Minority Welfare Department has been set up for implementation of
safeguards. But it is mentioned that Commissioner Public Instruction has been
appointed as the Nodal Officer. Last time, it was noted that the work relating
to
25. It is not
suggested that all the work related to the linguistic minorities should be at
one place. It is not even possible because it is concerned with many
departments. The expectation is only that there should be a good coordinating
arrangements. Especially at the district level this should be attended to.
26. A committee
is said to be constituted at the state level to monitor the implementation of
the safeguards. but the list of the members or information about the meetings
has not been given. On the district level, the responsibility has been
entrusted with the district Education Officer. it is said that a Urdu in charge has been appointed in the office of
the District Education Officer. There is no committee constituted at district
level. A suggestion was made that the committees should meet twice a year. The
committee should be headed by the chief secretary at the state level and the
collector at the district level.
27. In the reply to a question, it has been said that Minority Commission has been constituted but have not been entrusted with the responsibility of the linguistic minorities. On the other hand the Minority Commission has said that they have been given this responsibility. As has been mentioned above, they have given recognition certificates to some organizations also. The situation should be made clear.
28. The State has appointed Commissioner Public Instruction as the Nodal Officer and has said that linguistic minorities can send their grievances to him or The District Education Officer. But no pamphlets or other material have been sent to the linguistic minorities to make them aware of this. It is necessary that the linguistic minorities should be informed abut this so that they can contact them. Such publicity can also be done by having a notice board in front of the offices in the districts and tahsils offices concerned.
29. In Madhya Pradesh, Shiksha Guarantee Scheme was started in March 1997. It was said in the scheme that the villagers themselves can appoint their own ‘Guruji’ . It is for consideration whether they can not decide which language, they should have. Similarly the CPI said that to attract more children to the schools, the rights to have flexible hours has been given to the parents teachers associations. A provision for this has been made in the Lok Shiksha Act 2002. It is hoped that the rights to choose the language should also be delegated to them. But for this some guidelines would have to be drawn up. This will be a bit difficult because the Government will then have to provide books also accordingly but that will be the correct shape of the scheme.
30. In the meeting with the representatives of the linguistic minorities communities, some demands were presented which have been sent to the Government. some of them, which have not been listed above are as follows –
1. Advertisements should be given to the Urdu newspapers also and their rates should be increased.
2. Where the number of persons knowing Urdu is large, the electoral list should be in Urdu also. (According to the orders of the Election Commission, Urdu electoral rolls are prepared in Bhopal North, Bhopal South and Burhanpur assembly constituencies).
3. The time allotted to Urdu on the All India Radio and Door Darshan should be increased.
4. Financial assistance should be given to the Sindhi writers for publication of their books.
5. In 1988, Sindhi welfare Committee was constituted. it ended its tenure before doing the job allotted to it. Again the former Chief Minister reconstituted it but it could not complete its tenure. This
committee should be reconstituted and Sindhi speaking persons should be made members of this.
32. Though Madhya Pradesh is devoting its attention towards the linguistic minorities but there is much to be done for them. Especially no attention is being given to the community whose languages are tribal languages. It is necessary to make arrangements for the teachers and the books.
22. Manipur
1. The population of Manipur as per census 1991 was 17,37,149. The main language is Manipuri. In addition, there are a number of tribal languages spoken in various tribal areas. According to the 1991 census the more numerous of these languages were as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Thado |
100,230 |
5-46 |
|
Tangkhul |
100,065 |
5-45 |
|
Mao |
60,688 |
3-30 |
|
Nepali |
46,497 |
2-53 |
|
Paite |
40,946 |
2-23 |
|
Rengmei |
36,672 |
2-00 |
|
Hmar |
36,092 |
1-80 |
|
Kabui |
27,501 |
1-50 |
|
Veiphei |
25,136 |
1-37 |
|
Kuki |
22,145 |
1-20 |
|
Leangmai |
21,176 |
1-15 |
|
Bengali |
19,377 |
1-06 |
3. It has been informed by the State Government that Tangkhul is spoken in Ukhrul district by 91.57 % of people. The areas where the linguistic minorities are spoken by more than 15 % of the people are as follows –
|
District |
Language |
Percentage |
|
Senapati |
Mao |
29-120 |
|
Churachandpur |
Paite |
23-240 |
|
Churachandpur |
Hmar |
20-48 |
|
Chandel |
Maring |
29-48 |
|
Tamelong |
Kabui |
31-87 |
|
Tamelong |
Rengmei |
42-50 |
|
Tamelong |
Leangmei |
24-54 |
3. The Official Language of the State is said to be English but, in reality, Manipuri is the Official Language. No other language has been declared as additional official language. Looking to this aspect that Tangkhul is spoken by more than 90 % of the people in Ukhrul, it can be used for some purposes in the district administration.
4. The rules etc. are not translated in to minority languages. It is said that no applications/ representation are received in these languages and the question of replying in these does not arise.
5. There are no arrangements for giving recognition or grants to the linguistic minority institutes. No linguistic minority institute has been registered.
6. The primary education level is class I to V and the upper primary education level is from class VI to VIII. It is said that education is imparted, in addition to Manipuri, in Thado, Paite, Tangkhul, Hmar and Mizo languages. There is no prescribed norms for the number of students in a class. In the minority language schools, Manipuri is taught from class III. The State Government have not given the number of schools, teachers or the students.
7. The secondary education is from class IX to X. Mizo, Hmar, Paite, Thado and Tangkhul are the languages taught. In addition Bengali, English and Hindi are also taught. It is said that Mizo, Hindi, Paite are taught up to the graduate level. Obviously none of these language is the medium of instruction. No figures have not been given for schools and students in the secondary education also. There are no orders to maintain registers for Advance Registration regarding the choice of language.
8. In the Three Language Formula, mother tongue is said to be the first language and second language is English. Third language is mentioned as Saral Hindi and Saral Manipuri. Verification of this needs be done
9. It is said that no posts for the teachers for the non scheduled languages have been created. The volunteers from the concerned community teach these languages. This is a temporary measure. for these temporary teachers, there is no arrangements for training.
10. Regarding the textbooks, it is said that the books are prepared in the minority languages on voluntary basis. The concerned literary societies publishes the textbooks and they are also attempting to procure them.
11. No Academy has been created for the development of the languages in the State. The literary committees are given assistance for publication of the approved textbooks so that the textbooks can be available. It has been admitted that this amount is not enough. There is a provision in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan for the preparation of books. This can be used.
12. The medium for examination for the state services is English. Manipuri is not mentioned. There are no domicile restrictions in the state.
13. The responsibility for the scheduled languages in the State has been given to Directorate of Backward Classes and Directorate of Minorities. For the non scheduled languages, the work is entrusted to Directorate of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes Development.
14. No committee has been constituted for the monitoring the safeguards. On the district level, this responsibility has been given to any one. No booklet has been prepared about the safeguards.15. The State Government have admitted that no attempt has been made so far to implement the safeguards. One of the reasons is the inability to appoint teachers for the non scheduled languages. The lack of funds is behind this inability. Sufficient amount is not available for printing and publication of the textbooks. State Government have also informed that Roman script had been adopted for the non scheduled languages about a century back and there is no need to change it. This is suitable for establishing communication with people inside and outside the State and is also suitable for education and literature.
16. This is the first time that the State
Government have given the answers to the question in so much details and has
described its arrangements. It is a matter of pleasure that thinking has
started in this direction. It is hoped that the Tribal Affairs Ministry of
Government of
17. It is also hoped that State Government will give the number of schools, students and teachers at the primary and the secondary levels to this office.
23.
1. The population of
|
Language |
Percentage |
|
Hindi |
7-81 |
|
Urdu |
7-26 |
|
Gujarati |
2-55 |
|
Telugu |
1-42 |
|
Kannada |
1-34 |
|
Bhili |
1-23 |
|
Khandeshi |
1-06 |
2. It is to be mentioned that in the reply to the questionnaire sent for the 42nd Report, there
is no name of the Nodal Officer. Some information is prepared by a Department
and sent directly to the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities. A consolidated
reply is not prepared at the State
level. Last year also the information was sent from some of the departments
only. In fact the information of one part of the questionnaire for the 40th
Report was received on October 4, 2004 whereas the last date for receipt of
information for the 42nd Report was fixed as October 15, 2004. The
State Government are requested to nominate General Administration Department or
some other Department as the Nodal Department so the information can be
collected at one place and sent to the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities.
3. Presently the reply which has been received is from Education
Department and it is being analyzed. It has been stated that 49 institutions of
Urdu have applied for recognition and all of them have been granted
recognition. No details of any other language is given except for English which
is not relevant to the linguistic minorities.
4. The primary education is from class I to VII.. In this the teaching
is done through Urdu, Gujarati, Sindhi,
Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. For teaching in a minority language, there
should be at least 15 students. Marathi
is taught from class V. The number of working schools, students and teachers is
as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
2,634 |
79,250 |
18,108 |
|
Gujarati |
310 |
73,753 |
1,987 |
|
Hindi |
934 |
3,79,181 |
8,148 |
|
Sindhi |
40 |
5,431 |
190 |
|
Kannada |
281 |
39,945 |
1,079 |
|
Tamil |
56 |
19,162 |
508 |
|
Telugu |
78 |
20,161 |
509 |
|
Bengali |
3 |
840 |
23 |
5. In a meeting the number
of the primary schools was said to be 2,889. The number of teachers is 16,856.
There was also a big difference in the number of students. Probably the source
of the two information is different. Same difference is there for other
languages. In the information given in respect of Sindhi, there are 26 schools, 5069 students
and 203 teachers. If the information is collected in a prescribed format,
contradictory information can be avoided.
6.
According to the information given in the meeting, there were 109 schools for
Assamese. Probably these have been included in the confusion about medium and
language. This can be included in the questionnaire so that similar information
can be received from other states. There are 9,444 students for Nepali and
7,619 for Manipuri.
7. Class
VIII to X is included in secondary education. Besides Marathi and English,
Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada and Telugu are described as the media. The minimum
number of students for each class is fixed as 15. Question papers are given in all these
languages. In the secondary education, the number of schools, students and
teachers is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
809 |
3,77,606 |
10,207 |
|
Gujarati |
160 |
1,01,387 |
2,801 |
|
Hindi |
391 |
2,42,040 |
6,489 |
|
Sindhi |
23 |
8,693 |
300 |
|
Kannada |
80 |
19,677 |
725 |
|
Telugu |
10 |
2,492 |
91 |
|
Bengali |
1 |
130 |
4 |
|
Tibetan |
1 |
164 |
6 |
8. It was said that orders have been issued for the maintenance of the
Advance Registers. But in how many schools, such registers have been kept, this
information is not available. all the Education Officers were asked to send the
ls information for this in orders dated 29. 10. 1993. In the opinion of
the Commissioner, either reminders will have to be sent to the Education
Officers every year or there should be standing orders for sending the
information along with other statistics. If there is any format for
inspections, it should be made part of that also.
9. It is informed that the number of teachers is sufficient. No
information has been given about any vacancies. It is also not intimated how
many teachers were trained last year.
10. The textbooks are said to be available in sufficient number ad it
is also said that they are available to the students in time. These are
published by Textbooks Bureau, Pune. It is proposed that a cell should be
constituted in the Directorate of
Education so that they can collect the information about the books and dispose
off the complaints. A similar cell should be there at the district level also.
It is hoped that the sectarian will consider this proposal.
11. It was recommended by the Commissioner in the pervious Reports that
tribal languages should be introduced to the field of education. In this
context, it was informed an effort was made in 1994 – 95 to start Bhili and
Gondi in the tribal areas. But this idea was opposed by the MLAs and the local
people. hey were of the view that learning Marathi from the beginning is better
for getting a job. Hence the idea was dropped.
12. More information shall have to be obtained regarding this effort.
whether Marathi is learnt from class I or from class III, it does not make much
of a difference. It does not effect the qualifications for the service. Marathi
can be adopted as a medium in the upper primary classes. This will depend upon
the development of language and the availability of the books.
13. In
this context, attention is drawn towards Report for
14. In the
context of the Three Language Formula, it has been said that mother tongue is
the first language. The second language can be from amongst Marathi, Urdu,
Sanskrit, Pali, Ardh Maghdi, Persian, Arabic, Avestha, Pahelvi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Sindhi, Bengali,
Punjabi, Gujarati, Russian and French. The third language is said to be
English. In the previous years also, it is said that this grouping of languages
is not as per the spirit of the Three Language Formula. The classical languages
and the foreign languages can be taken as an additional subject but not under
the Three Language Formula. It is said that many students in Mumbai are taking German
language. In the
15. It is
said that a combined course for two languages can also be taken. Every student
has to take languages subjects for 300 marks. Out of these 100 marks are for
English. The linguistic minorities can take their language for 100 marks, the
remaining 100 marks can be for Marathi or for two languages of 50 marks each in
which one of the languages will be Marathi. But if he is studying in a school
with minority language as medium, he will have to take Marathi paper for 100
marks.
16. The
students who have been out of Maharashtra are exempted from learning Marathi,
if he has studied outside
17. The
information that has been ostensibly sent for the 40th Report has information
for the trained teachers for year 2003 -04 along with that of the previous
years. according to this the number of teachers given pre service training in
the year 2003 - 04 was 1,161 for Urdu;
502 for Hindi; 165 for Gujarati; and 60 for Kannada. It is stated that
there are 44 colleges where B. Ed. classes are
held. The number of colleges for
Hindi is 12; for Gujarati 4; for Kannada two. There is some confusion in the
figures here. In the meeting, the number of teachers trained in year 2000 – 01
is considerably more. 8,421 teachers for Urdu;
3037 for Hindi; 1003 for Gujarati and 619 for Kannada. Perhaps these are
figures for in service training but this has not been clarified.
18. In
addition, the teachers in the primary schools have been trained in
19. Some
years back orders were issued that the private schools will not be taken over
by the Government. The new schools were given recognition with the condition
that they will not ask for grants at any time in future. This is called “Kayam
Bina Anudan”. This arrangements applies to the linguistic minority students
also.
20. The
provision earlier for the schools was that they had to run for four years
without grants. There after the grants were increased in steps. The procedure
was completed in nine years. It was a good means to get own persons in through
the backdoor. Obviously only the influential persons could get benefit out of
it. They had also made the arrangements that others should not be able to open
a school nearby. They were even making the opening of schools without
permission a cognizable offence. But these orders stopped the malpractice.
21. Here
the sympathy is not these persons but unfortunately the good are punished along
with the bad ones. These orders have adversely affected the linguistic
minorities. They are also not getting the permission.
22. In
fact, in my view, there should not be any ban on opening of schools. To open a
school is a service to humanity even if there are some commercial objectives to
it. In these days when even the setting up of the industries is being freed
from controls, there should be no objection to opening a school on the basis of
principle of demand and supply. Obviously there is no objection, rather it is
essential, that these schools should have the money for the basic infra
structure like space for rooms and classes, space for sports, trained teachers,
and arrangements for quality education.
23. So far
as the grants are concerned, it must be seen that there is no school receiving
grants nearby. If in an aided school, extra sections can be opened for giving
education to the linguistic minorities, new schools should not get grants. But
the opening of new schools should be liberally sanctioned.
24. Sindhi
Sahitya Academy was constituted in
25. In the
opinion of the Commissioner, Rs. 50 lakhs is a big amount but the budget will
have to be considerably increased to make the Academy worthwhile.
26.
Gujarati Sahitya Academy was also set up with noble objectives but there is no
special activity in the absence of budget. In the year 2003, Shri Gulab Das
Brokers for outstanding contribution in the field of school literature and Shri
Partap Ojha in the field of Gujarati arts and culture were given the Sarswat
Samman (with cash awards of Rs. 21,000). In addition Rs. 80,000 was given in
other awards. The increase in the budget of the Gujarati Sahitya Samiti is desirable.
27. A
meeting also took place with the Chairman and the members of Minority
Commission. At present the Commission is not looking after the work of the
linguistic minorities but they are of the opinion that if this work is
entrusted to them as in
28. The
Chairman gave another suggestion. In each state, there should be a senior
officer (of the rank of secretary to Government) designated as State Linguistic
Minorities Officer. He should be given staff for doing his job. In due course,
this arrangement should be done in the districts also. A cell has been set up
in
29. As has been said
earlier, in the reply to the questionnaire for the 42nd Report, only
the information for the Education
Department has been received. On some other points reply has been
received for the questionnaire for 40th Report. The following
information is given on that basis and there would not be much of a change in
this.
30. The
State Government have informed that for the group ‘A’ and group ‘B’ posts.
English and Marathi are the media for examinations. For group ‘C’ posts, the
recruitment is done by the district selection committees. Their examination is
in regional languages. It is not clear what is meant by ‘regional languages’.
Is there, in the areas where the linguistic minorities are more than 15 %,
permission for the candidates to reply in the minority languages. This should
be clarified.
31. It is said that for most of the posts, the knowledge of the
regional language is essential. But it has also been said that where there is
no such provision in the rules, the Government Servant has to pass the
prescribed examination in Marathi. Which are the posts for which knowledge of
Marathi is essential should be described in detail.
32. It is said that there is no condition regarding domicile in the
state. Previously it was informed that for the reserved posts, the condition of
domicile is applied.
33. A copy of the orders for the registration of the linguistic
minority institutes has been enclosed. In this question 2 (b, k) information is
sought whether the number of trustees is more than 50 % or not. It is also
mentioned that where this number is more than 50 %, the institution will be
considered as an institution set up and managed by the minorities.
34. It is also said that for setting up these institutions, the prior
permission of the Education Officer is not required. For other schools, prior
permission is required.
35. There has been
mention of training during the service through SMART, PT 2003 for the teachers
in the primary schools. But the table that has been given, does not make the
position clear whether the training given to the teachers of the minority
languages pertains to the teaching in those languages or English. It is because
in the tables, English has been mentioned. In the same tables, there is also
mention of Marathi teachers. This also creates
some doubts. Therefore it is necessary as to
what type of training this is and for which subjects.
36. Some schools and institutions were visited during the tour to
Solapur. Discussions were also held with the representatives of the linguistic
minorities.
37. In Solapur the main minority languages are Kannada, Urdu and
Telugu. In Akalkot, the number of Kannada school are the maximum.
38. According to the information given by the Zila Parishad officers,
there are 22 Kannada medium schools, 19 Urdu medium schools and one Telugu
medium school. according to the Solapur Municipal Corporation, there are 19
Urdu medium schools, 4 Telugu medium and one Kannada medium school in their
area. The information about the schools, the students and the teachers in
schools run by the Zila Parishad is as
follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
19 |
5,703 |
119 |
|
Kannada |
11 |
947 |
33 |
|
Telugu |
4 |
842 |
19 |
39. In addition there are Government schools in Kannada and Urdu also.
Their information is as follows –
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
15 |
8,327 |
119 |
|
Kannada |
7 |
9,807 |
50 |
40. In the visit
to the schools, the biggest problem was appeared to the shortage of teachers.
Though in the reply, it is said that it is not necessary for the linguistic
minority schools to adopt the roster system, but it was said here that this is
the main reason for the vacancies. The government should check whether their
intentions are being correctly interpreted here. Another problem is that on the
one hand the non official schools have a tendency to select candidates of their
own liking. On the other hand, the Government officers like to look at the
quality before giving permission. If the question arises about exempting from
basic qualifications for any reasons, then the full details of the reasons have
to be given about which candidates were invited for interview and why the
persons with better qualifications could not be selected.
41. In Mumbai, it was said that two level committees have bee set up
for giving grants to the schools. One at the district level and the other at
the state level. In Solapur, no such committee was found. The applications are
being decided as per the discretion of the officers. In one institute, it was
informed that they were not being given the certificate for being a minority
institute for their two new schools though they had such certificate for the
institute. They had given in writing that they do not need any grants.
42. It is informed that the receipt of the grants is irregular. In one institute, it was informed that they had not received the grants since year 2001. Their students come from an economically weaker area and they are not in a position to give fees which are equal to the amount of the grant so that the teachers can be given their salaries.
43. It is informed that the religious minority institutes are given a certificate for their minority status but it is not done for the linguistic minority schools and institutes. They have to prove their recognition from other records such as the sanction of the teachers. In my view, there should not be any problem in giving them such certificates. If extra precaution is to be observed then the certificate can be limited to a period of five years.
44. It is said that for classes VIII, IX and X, the question papers are not prepared in Telugu though the students are permitted to write their answers in Telugu. Because the students have learnt the subject in Telugu, therefore they find it difficult to understand the question paper in other language. The Board has rejected their contention on the premises that the number of Telugu examinees is very small. The applicants said that if, instead of the zone, the total number of candidates for the State are seen, they will not be in a small number.
45. It is appropriate to draw attention towards a news item. It has been said that in the year 2003, orders were issued that Board of Secondary Education has placed a ban on study of seven Indian languages.
46. On the objection
being taken by the linguistic minorities the State Government have stayed it.
it is said that the orders were issued on the basis that very few students take
their mother tongue as subjects. The linguistic minorities deny this. These
languages included Sindhi, Malayalam, Punjabi.
Bengali, Kannada, Telugu and Tamil. In
47. The happy
ending is that these orders have been taken back. But it is worth noting that
the number of students in the minority languages will never be equal to the
number of students for the regional language, Hindi or English. Their students
will be less but they should be treated more carefully even though there may be
extra expenditure. And then, in these days of computerisation, preparing the
question papers and distributing them would not be difficult or very expensive.
24.
Mizoram
1. No reply has been received from Mizoram to the questionnaire for the 42nd Report despite a number of reminders at different levels. This is a surprise because Mizoram has usually been quite prompt in these matters. It has also been doing well for implementation of the safeguards.
2. It is hoped that Mizoram is continuing its good work for the linguistic minorities.
25. Meghalaya
1. The population of Meghalaya is 23,06,472 as per census 2001 and was 17,74,778 as per census 1991. The linguistic profile has been given below but this is different from the figures given in the census handbook for 1991. For comparison, both the figures have been given below.
|
Language |
Information as per Census Commissioner |
Information as given by State
Government |
||
|
Persons |
Percentage |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
|
Khasi |
8,79,192 |
49-54 |
6,70,472 |
37-77 |
|
Garo |
5,47,690 |
30-86 |
5,47,690 |
30-86 |
|
Pnar/ Sinteng |
|
|
1,67,790 |
9-45 |
|
Hajong |
|
|
27,197 |
1-53 |
|
Var |
|
|
26,053 |
1-47 |
|
Bengali |
1,44,261 |
8-13 |
|
|
|
Nepali |
49,186 |
2-77 |
|
|
|
Hindi |
38,930 |
2-19 |
|
|
|
Assamese |
34,118 |
1-92 |
|
|
|
Rabha |
20,455 |
1-15 |
20,455 |
1-15 |
|
Koch |
18,698 |
1-05 |
17,892 |
1-01 |
2. The Census Commissioner has probably considered Pnar/ Hasanteng, Hojong and War as dialects and not as languages.
3. The State Government have stated that
there are no areas where a language is spoken by more than 60 % of the
population of the area. But this is not correct. Khasi is primarily spoken in
East Khasi,
4. Similarly the areas were a language is spoken by more than 15 % of the people have not been intimated. This should also be checked up.
5. The Official Language of the State is stated to be English. No other language has been described as the official or the additional official language. In fact Khasi and Garo should be given this honour.
6. Primary education is from class I to IV and the upper primary from class V to VII. for the linguistic minority community the number of minimum students in a class is fixed at ten. No language has been accepted as the regional language. The number of students at the primary level (class I to VII) in different languages is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Hindi |
19 |
1,347 |
31 |
|
Bengali |
43 |
5,074 |
95 |
|
Nepali |
18 |
1,530 |
32 |
|
Assamese |
208 |
12,009 |
372 |
7. Khasi and Garo schools have not been included in this table. According to our definition, they are also in the category of the minority languages. Additionally Rabha and Koch could have been included.
8. One more thing. This time it is said that this information is as per the fifth educational survey. Two years back, the same thing was said. Is it to be inferred that the State Government do not collect statistics about the educational institutions themselves. The State Government are requested to stop sending the fifth educational survey statistics and get the information annually from the schools and send the information accordingly. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that the figures for the next educational survey would also be available. But the information in this is not in accordance with what we require. This will have to be collected from the districts.
9. In the secondary education, the only medium is English. Assamese, Bengali, Hindi, Nepali, Mizo and Urdu are only taught as subjects. Khasi, Garo etc. have not been mentioned what to say of Koch and Rabha.
10. There are no arrangements for maintenance of registers for registration of the choice of language by the students.
11. Mother tongue is said to be the first language in the Three Language Formula. English is started from class II, this has been said in answer to question 27 but in reply to question 29, it is said that English is started from class I. Which one is correct, will have to be clarified by the State Government. Hindi is taught from class V to VIII.
12. It is said that there is no shortage of teachers or the textbooks. But this is just a formality to say so since even the recent information is not available. It was asked how many posts of teachers have been sanctioned but it has not been replied to. Therefore there can be no idea of shortage. At the secondary stage, the language is taught but the books for them are not prepared by any agency of the Government. It does not appear that the syllabi of the State Government recommend any books for adoption. It is said that from the financial angle, the books are not got prepared. This can be accepted but can the State abdicate its responsibility of maintaining the quality also. At least there should be an approved list of books and directions to the schools to select books out of this list.
13. There are no governmental agencies for development of languages and no provision for giving assistance to any non official organization.
14. There is no machinery for the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities, neither at the state level, nor at the district level. Earlier it used to be said that the Chief Secretary looks after this work directly but this time this has not been said. The things have gone to the extent that in the reply sent, the name and designation etc. of the Nodal Officer have not been mentioned. The reply has been sent by the Joint Secretary of the Education Department. The copy of this has also been sent to only the organization of the Education Department which makes it clear that no enquiry has been made from other departments.
15. Overall, Meghalaya has disappointed this time. It is hoped that attention will be paid to these points at the higher level and correct initiative will be taken. First of all, a Nodal Officer shall have to be appointed who will then look after the other matters.
26.
Rajasthan
1. The linguistic minorities in Rajasthan are
those who speak Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. The speakers of Sindhi are only 0.79
% but they resides in some areas where their number is so much that they are
entitled for the rights available to the linguistic minorities. Rajasthan does
not have areas where the population at the district level is more than sixty
percent of the total population. But there are areas where it is more than 15
%. In the reply of the Government, only Ganga Nagar is mentioned. This
information is based on the district only. There are many such areas at the
tahsil and town level. These include Tonk tahsil for Urdu. In addition, there
are many towns in districts of
2. It is to be noted that the Bhili speakers
are 4.34 % of the population but it is not mentioned by the Rajasthan
Government in their reply though it should also be included. Obviously Bhili is
not giving any facilities for its development of its use. As is expected, the
question of script is raised for Bhili. But script is not the language. Neither
does language mean script. No language comes into existence along with its
script. The script is always adopted later. To adopt Devanagari for Bhili is
not difficult. This will facilitate the work in Hindi later on.
3. Gujarati has also been mentioned whose
speakers in 1991 census were 49,991. It appears that Gujarati is included as
the third language.
4. The Official language of State is Hindi. There is no other official
language. Though the Punjabi area is recognized but Punjabi is not used there
to give information to the public.
5. It is also said that no representations or applications are received
in minority languages. It is said that the entire work of the State Government
is done in Hindi. Obviously the provision in the Constitution that one can
submit the representation in his own language is not being observed here.
6. It is informed that there are no separate rules for the recognition of
or for grants to the linguistic minority institutes. No differentiation is made
on the basis of the language. There is no question of a separate list being
kept for such organizations. hence the answer regarding grants is also ‘NIL’.
7. At the primary level, Urdu and Hindi are said to be the media of
instruction. Punjabi and Sindhi are not mentioned. The question of mentioning
Bhili does not arise. But against this Sindhi is mentioned for the secondary
education. This appears to be contradictory. Perhaps this has been done through
oversight. At the senior secondary level, the media are only Hindi (and
English).
8. At the primary level the number of schools, students and the teachers
is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
595 |
74,976 |
605 |
|
Sindhi |
40 |
3,093 |
132 |
|
Punjabi |
82 |
4,275 |
25 |
The secondary level is from class VI to XII. In this though only English
and Hindi
are mentioned as the media, for
giving the data, other languages have
been included. The information is as follows -
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
363 |
14,935 |
547 |
|
Sindhi |
25 |
717 |
37 |
|
Punjabi |
64 |
8,779 |
74 |
|
Gujarati |
9 |
425 |
10 |
10. It appears that these figures are for the
language as a subject. This should be confirmed. It should also be clarified in
how many schools Sindhi is used as medium.
11. In the visit to the schools, this has
come to notice that Sindhi was being used as the medium for instructions till
some years back but in Jaipur city, there are no such schools of this type now.
In some of the schools, Sindhi is still being taught as a language but there
are roadblocks in this also. It was informed that since 1975, no teachers of
Sindhi language have been appointed. The Sindhi teachers who retire are not
replaced. The schools are closing down for this reason or converting to Hindi
schools.
12. It is reported that Advance Registers are
maintained in all the schools. For this and for the adjustment of the students,
orders have been passed. But what is the use of these registers is not clear.
13. In the Three Language Formula, mother
tongue is said to be the first language. But looking to the number of the
students, this does not appear to be correct. The second language is English
and the third can be Urdu/ Sindhi/ Gujarati/ Punjabi/ Sanskrit/
Malayalam/ Tamil/ minority language. In this there is no place for Hindi
if it is not the mother tongue. But probably it
is assumed that mother tongue means Hindi. The position should be made
clear. Though in the answer to question 29, it is said that study of English
begins from class VI, but the Deputy Secretary, Education Department, made it
clear that English is being studied from class I.
14. The teachers are said to be sufficient.
But as has been pointed out below, there is no system of calculating how many
teachers are required for the minority languages. Therefore to talk of all the
posts being filled up is meaningless. It is said that 400 posts have been
filled up by 30.6.04. Similarly Director, Secondary Education is undertaking
the task of filling up the newly created posts. On the one hand it is said that
there are no vacant posts and on the other hand, there is talk of their being
filled up. The two statements are contradictory.
15. For the training of Urdu teachers, fifteen
seats are reserved in Ajmer Higher Education Training Institute. In the year
2003 – 04 also, fifteen persons were trained in this. There is no mention of
training for teachers of other languages.
16. No shortage of textbooks is reported.
They are also said to reach the students in time. But on talking to the
representatives of the
syllabi. Books for Urdu medium
have to be obtained from
17. Sindhi and
18.
19.
20. For recruitment to the State services, the media are Hindi and English. Urdu, Sindhi, Gujarati can be taken as subjects.
21. A linguistic minority section has been set up under the Director Elementary and Secondary Education for the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities. At the district level, district Education Officer looks after this work. No committee has been set up for monitoring at any level.
22. No booklet has been prepared for the information of the linguistic minorities but circulars are issued from time to time. But these circulars are issued for the Government Officers. Whether the public comes to know about them or not, is not clear. The idea is to inform them. But it is said that Education Department has translated important circulars in Urdu, Sindhi, Gujarati and Punjabi and these have been made available to the District Education Officer and the Public Relations Officer. Rajasthan Government deserve congratulations for this.
23. The Education Officer concerned has been delegated the powers to start the subject of minority language. For class IX and X, these powers are with the Director, Secondary Education. Orders have also been passed that if the minority language teacher is transferred, his posting should be done at a place where the language is being taught. They should not be sent to a general post. The schools libraries have been asked to store books in the minority languages also.
24. These orders will solve many of the problems of the linguistic minorities. It is hoped that State Government will continue moving in this direction.
25. It is
learnt that
26. In the discussions in
various schools and
1- The number of persons knowing Sindhi is
coming down due to non appointment of Sindhi teachers. The Education Department
has created five posts for monitoring but no one has been posted against these
posts. There should be a sub inspector appointed in Jaipur. Similarly in
2. In the Urdu medium school at Nawabganj
area, Jaipur there are 350 students in the
3. In
4. In
5. One thing is clear from all this that if the ratio of 1 : 40 is applied then these schools can not run in any case. for them some concession is required. Presently, there is shortage of teachers in almost all the schools and this is the main complaint. Mangal Bihari and Anil Bordia committees have recommended one head master and four teachers for the upper primary schools. This is the minimum and the question of the ratio should not apply.
27.
During the discussions, sometimes arguments are advanced which reflect the
underlying approach. A very senior officer expressed the view in a meeting that
there are many languages like Mewari, Marwari etc. also these have many
dialects. The language of
28. But
seen from another angle, the arguments of this senior officer are a powerful
argument for teaching in the mother tongue. In the language of
29. It was not clear if the officer was in favour of more languages or was opposing it. sometimes, in order to postpone the ,matter at hand, there is an attempt to sow more confusion. I quote from an article covering this attitude. “There is a tendency amongst those who still favour assimilationalist and monistic outcomes to adopt the multi culturism phraseology but to attempt to achieve their ends by relegating ethnic culture to residue. Through the breaking of such cultures into fragments, their impact upon the majority is reduced, while at the same time, the transmission to the next generation is made less likely. This type of reductionism is characterized by a policy of discouraging ethnic or minority languages, since in many cultures, the loss of matrix language represents a preclude to their disintegration. Under the garb of multi culturism, the goals of assimilation can be brought nearer without incurring the odium of denying cultural rights to the minorities.” (Education of Minorities – World Yearbook of Education 1981 ISBN 0-85038-457-5)
30. It is
clear that the implementation of the safeguards given in the Constitution to
the linguistic minorities can not be said to be satisfactory. Last year it
appeared that something is being done but the visit to the schools has given a
set back to this belief. In the absence of the teachers, the schools which were
running earlier are now on the deathbed. It does not appear that Government are
aware of it. But it can also not be said that nothing is being done. The
Academies have been given sufficient money. It is hoped that through them, the
minority languages would be served to some extent. But there is need to
activate the
31. In order to continue the teaching through minority languages, two fold initiative would be required. The first is that it should be determined how many teachers will be required for each language and the posts should be created or converted on that basis. After that urgent action should be taken to fill them up. Rest of the things can be settled later.
27.
1.
2. The total population of
the State is 5,40,493 as per the census 2001. It was 4,03,612 in 1991 census.
The Government have said that
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Nepali |
2,56,418 |
63-53 |
|
Bhotia |
32,593 |
8-08 |
|
Lepcha |
29,854 |
7-40 |
|
Limbu |
26,985 |
6-69 |
|
Hindi |
19,868 |
4-92 |
|
Sherpa |
13,872 |
3-44 |
3. The Census Commissioner has not given
information about other languages because, for reasons unknown, it has been
decided not to give information about the languages spoken by less than 10,000
persons (in the entire country). These undeclared languages include Newari,
Gurung, Mukhia, Rayee and Tamang about which the State Government have
intimated. It is surprising that there is mention of one person speaking Ao in
that information about all the language should be given whatever be the number by whom it is spoken.
4. The State Government have said that English is the official language but other languages have been recognized so that the culture and traditions of the persons speaking them can be protected.
5. Important documents are not got translated into minority languages. No applications or representations are received in these languages. These languages are in the early stages of development and it is not expected of them.
6. There is no provision for registration of any institute. The primary education, which is from class I to VII, is imparted through all these languages. For this there should be a minimum of ten students. But the number of schools and students is not given. Secondary education is through English only. In the Three Language Formula, we have mother tongue, Hindi and English. No shortage of teachers is reported. Also there is no shortage of textbooks. These books are prepared by the Human Resource Department.
7.
8. A committee is being constituted to monitor the implementation of the safeguards. Joint Secretary, Home Department will be the member secretary of this committee. Additional Secretary of Home department will be the Nodal Officer.
9. Overall the State is working well in the correct direction.
28. Haryana
1. The population Haryana as per
census 2001 is 2,1,1,44,564 whereas it was 1,64,63,648 in census 1991. (1 % of
the people have described Hindi as their mother tongue. 7.11 percent have
Punjabi and 1.59 % Urdu as their mother tongue. Sirsa and Kurukshetra are the
districts in the State where the Punjabi speaking people are more than 15 % of
the total population. Kurukshetra has 18.53 % as Punjabi speakers and Sirsa has
34.54 %. In Gurgaon, the number of Urdu speakers is 16.52 %.
2. It was said earlier also that the
percentage of the linguistic minorities should be seen at the tahsil and the
town level. This request is repeated.
3. The only official language of the
State is Hindi. The Official Language Act was passed in 1979 but so far the
rules have not been made. Section 6 of the Act says that the citizens can give
representation in any language used in the State. In the reply to question 9 of
the questionnaire, it is said that the reply to the representations/ petition
received from the linguistic minorities is replied to in the same language.
This is doubtful. In the answer to question 8, it is said that the arrangements
for translation in the State has been closed down. Like the previous years, it
is also said that a post of research assistant was created in 1975 -76 but was
abolished because of lack of sufficient material for translation. for the last
thirty years the same argument is being given for not making arrangements for
translation. It does not appear that this decision was ever reviewed. But the
question is if there is no translation facility, how is the replies are
prepared in the minority languages. So all the employees/ officers know Punjabi
and Urdu. and are the typewriters for these languages available. In my view,
the reply has been given without applying mind.
4. Principal Secretary, Higher
Education and Languages was more direct in this respect. In the discussions, he
said that no such representations are received. Generally when the person
concerned does not know enough Hindi to give an application, he gets it written
by another person. But no application is rejected on the grounds that this is
written in language other than Hindi. There is no arrangement for giving a
reply to such applications but if it is necessary, the translation is got done
by the Academy. The situation can not be said to be encouraging if, even after
being literate, one has to get the application written by some one else.
5. The State Government have stated
in reply to question 10 that the linguistic minority institutions are not
recognized but the institutions situated in Haryana are given grants. This
information is not available as to how many such institutions are given grants.
Information should be sent in this respect.
6. The question also arises as to
whether not recognising but giving grants is not self contradictory answers.
Probably what the State Government wants to say is that there is no
differentiation between the normal institutes and the linguistic minority
institutes in the matter of giving grants. But one can not give grants without
recognizing an institute is beyond me. It appears that this answer is also
given without deep consideration.
7. The State Government have informed
that in all the primary schools, the teaching is done only through Hindi. This
is certainly in violation of the provisions of Article 350A of the
Constitution. In this Article, the State Governments have been directed to endeavour to give primary education in mother
tongue. The State Government is expected to make arrangements for primary
schools in the areas (tahsils, towns) where the linguistic minorities are in
excess of 15 % of the population in terms of the Constitution. For these
schools there should be arrangements for teachers and textbooks.
8. The State Government have informed that Orders
have been issued on 15. 5. 97 by the Director Primary Education to all the
District Primary Education Officers that those students who want to read
Punjabi or Urdu can get their preference registered for which purpose,
registers should be kept in the primary schools. It is also stated that these
registers are being maintained in all the schools. The orders also say that
where there are four students in a class
or 15 in the entire primary section who want to learn Punjabi or Urdu then
these should also be taken as additional subjects.
9. The State Government are requested to inform in
how many schools Punjabi or Urdu is being taught in the context of the above mentioned
orders. The number of the students should also be intimated district wise.
Information should also be given as to how many teachers have been arranged for
this and should also mention the availability of textbooks for this.
10. It is to be mentioned that in reply for the
thirty eighth Report, it was said that Schools with Punjabi medium are running.
what happened to them, should be clarified.
11. In secondary education also, it is said that
Hindi is the only medium In the senior secondary classes of class XI and XII,
English is permitted as medium as an alternative for Science subjects. Minority
languages are not adopted as media which is expected of the Government.
12. In the discussion with the
Principal Secretary, it was informed that 224 madarasas are registered in the
State. Their modernization in terms of scheme of the Central Government is
being attempted. The medium of instruction in these will be Urdu.
13. In the Three Language Formula, one of the
languages from amongst Punjabi, Sanskrit and Telugu is stated to be a compulsory subject in class
VI to class VIII. Urdu has not been mentioned in it. The State Government are
requested to inform how many students have taken which language. district wise
information may kindly be sent.
14. It is worth mentioning that where on the one
hand orders have been issued in 1997 for teaching of Punjabi and Urdu as a
subject, on the other hand it has been informed that there is no teacher to teach these subjects.
Similarly for the secondary education, there is mention of the Three Language
Formula and that Punjabi is one of the subjects to be taught, there is no
teacher available for this. It appears that orders of 1997 are merely to
complete a formality and no follow up.
15. In the context of this the reply to question 32
is interesting. It is said that “there is no problem in recruitment of language
teachers”. When there are no teachers of this type, the question of there being
any problem is irrelevant.
16. There are three
institutes at Deeg, Yumana Nagar and Karnal for the training of Punjabi
teachers in which there are 250 seats. In addition, it has been said that in
the year 2003 - 04 no one was admitted to these institutes. In the previous
years also such admission was made is not expected. The question is what these
institutes are doing. Just as the lone post of translator was abolished for
want of work and was not thought of again for the next thirty
years,
what will be the fate of these institutes can be well imagined action has been
taken. Otherwise the posts of teachers should have been created and teachers
appointed for these posts.
17.
18.
19. The programmes organized by
20. There is provision for assistance
to other organizations besides the Academies. Three Urdu organizations have
been given Rs. 19,000 and three institutes in Punjabi have been given Rs.
41,740 for various programmes.
21. It is obvious that when the State Government
does not undertake activities for the teaching through minority languages,
there is no question of any language other than Hindi being the media for
examinations for recruitment. It is also obvious that knowledge of Hindi is pre
requisite.
22. The State Government have not
constituted any committee for monitoring the safeguards. When there is no
safeguard and no information is available about it, monitoring does not have
any meaning.
23. In this situation, the reply to
the question 46 by the State Government saying “The pamphlets to show the
safeguards for the linguistic minorities are issued in the first language of
the State i.e. Hindi” is ridiculous.
24. In the above situation, this
reply of the State Government can certainly be taken as correct that “there is
no problem before the Government and the Administration in effective
implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities”.
25. It is correct. The problems will
come up only before the linguistic minorities who have to remain deprived of
their fundamental rights. How will it come before the administration.
26. During the tour to
27. Overall the position is Haryana
is disappointing. Except for the Academies, there is no other positive
development. As yet the safeguards have not even been intellectually accepted.
It is necessary to give attention to this. It also appears that the reply to
the questionnaire is not seen at a higher level. It is hoped that his will be
considered at the highest level.
29. Himachal Pradesh
1. The population of Himachal Pradesh is 60,77,900 as per census 2001.
It was 51,11,079 in 1991 census. The linguistic profile has not been given. it
is said that it is not available. But that of 1991 census is available and it
is as follows -
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Hindi |
45,95,615 |
88-87 |
|
Punjabi |
3,24,479 |
6-28 |
|
Kinnauri |
61,521 |
1,19 |
2. In
addition, last year there was mention of Lahauli also. This time the figures
are given for Bhoti. It is said that in Kaza tahsil of Lahaul Spiti, the
percentage of Bhoti speakers is 90 % whereas for the entire district, it is 40
percent. Last year the percentage of Punjabi speakers in Una district was given
as 30 % and of Nalagarh/ Badi of 20 %. In the list of languages Dogri, Urdu,
Nepali are also mentioned. But just like other languages, it is not said how
many claim these languages as their mother tongue. However, as per the Census
Commissioner, the number of Dogri speaking people was 30,978 in Chamba
district; 10,046 in Kangra district; and 10,819 in Hamirpur. The number of
people who speak Kangri is 27,946 in Hamirpur and 4,34,234 in Kangra. The
speakers of Urdu and Nepali are not many.
3. In
the discussions in Kangra with some people, it was told that at the time of
reorganization of Himachal Pradesh, it was promised that Pahari language will
be
developed
but this promise was not kept. This was to be called Himachal but no one other
than the Chief Minister took no interest in the matter and there was no
progress. One of his colleagues said that it is not proper to call it a Hindi
speaking State but a Himachali speaking
State. But the census does not mention Himachali language whereas Bilaspuri,
Mandeali, Sirmauri, Chambeali etc. have been named.
4. A difficulty was cited
for adopting languages like Kinnauri or Lahauli in that tough they are spoken
by a small number of people but have still various dialects amongst them. for
example Kinnauri has three dialects and Lahauli has five. which one of the
dialects should be adopted. In the chapter dealing with Rajasthan, this
predicament has been discussed. The same arguments apply to the retention of
English in
5. The first step is to appoint a senior officer at the
secretariat level as the Nodal Officer. Along with this the District Collectors
should be informed about the safeguards. Some time back the chief Minister had
declared that Punjabi will be given its due place. The orders in execution of
them would have been issued. Whether they are being implemented or not, should
be monitored at the Nodal Officer and the Chief Secretary level. In addition to
this, we should also consider how to make Kinnauri etc. a language of
education.
6. The preservation of culture along with the language is also
necessary. In the meeting with the Chief Secretary, he agreed with the view
that The safeguarding of languages is necessary so that the distinct culture
can be can also be kept intact. he said that “These local languages reflect the
culture of that place. Each word has got its own background whish reveals the cultural heritage of the
place. If attempt are not made to keep the languages alive, these may disappear
as for example there are very few persons who can now read Tangri.” He did not
agree that shortage of teachers is a block because he thought that there would
be any difficulty in training them in their own language. He directed the
officers to do the needful.
7. The Official Language of he State is Hindi. There is no tradition of
translating the rules etc. in the minority languages nor are there any orders
to use them as medium for instruction at any stage. The only exception is
Bhoti. For this language there are 43
primary schools in Spiti development block in Lahaul Spiti district and two in
Pangi development block of Chamba distinct. There are 43 teachers in them. Probably they have not been
appointed in Pangi development block as yet. There are 862 students in these
schools. Nothing has been said about the textbooks this time. Last time, it was
intimated that Government have approved the books. It is hoped that by now,
these have been published.
8. For
Kinnauri and Lahauli, a difficulty was expressed that there is no script for
them. The solution is simple. Take Devanagari as the script and prepare the
books and start the process of teaching through them. Once a decision has been
made, there will be no difficulty. In Devanagari, the advantage of available
typewriters. computers etc. can be fully made use of. If the local teachers are
taken, there will be no difficulty regarding the language for the students.
9. There
may be difficulty of script for Kinnauri and Lahauli but for Punjabi, there is
no such difficulty. But even there the education is not being through it.
10. In
the Three Language Formula, Tamil, Telugu and Sanskrit are also include along
with Punjabi and Urdu. But how many students of Tamil and Telugu are there,
would be worth knowing. while giving the number of teachers, only the number of
Punjabi and Urdu teachers are mentioned, not the Tamil and Telugu.
11. It is informed that 2,400 students in 45 schools are learning Punjabi. Urdu is being taught to 1,520 students in 51 schools. But how is this being taught and who is teaching them is a secret. In the 45 Punjabi schools, the number of teachers is 39 i.e. at least six schools are without teachers. But in answer to question 30, it has been said that there is no shortage of teachers. In Urdu the position is worse. There are only 18 teachers for 51 schools. Last year, the number of teachers trained were 39 for Punjabi and 18 for Urdu i.e. every teacher has been trained.
12. In
the above circumstances, the answer to the question about shortage of textbooks
will have to be in the negative. It is to be mentioned that there is provision
in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan that books can be printed for teaching in the
local languages. It has also been
discussed that the funds in the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan can be used for preparing
the books. In addition, the Tribal Affairs Ministry has also been running
programmes for preservation of culture of the tribal groups. They can also be
requested to give assistance for the preparation of the books.
13.
There is neither any Academy nor is there a scheme to give assistance to an
individual for development of language. But for the preservation and the
development of the Pahari folk literature, there is a quarterly magazine by the
name of Him Bharati. There is another magazine Somsi in Hindi in which the
Hindi version of the folk literature is published. But it is not certain that
these magazines are being published regularly. It has also been informed that
there are some non official organizations which are working for the development
of Pahari languages. These are assisted by the Information and Publicity
Department. More information is needed on this count.
14. As
has been mentioned afore, it appears that some beginning has been made. The
Government have issued instructions some
time back that information should be collected about the students who desired
to study Punjabi or Urdu. Besides the information was also to be collected
about the teachers who can teach in these languages or have the desire to teach
these languages. This information is being colleted from the local schools.
Information has been received from some class IX and X schools where the
students want to learn Urdu but the teachers to teach Urdu are not available.
About Punjabi, information received from some schools show that there are
teachers who are willing to get training to teach in Punjabi. The choice of the
language to be learnt is received in the teacher parent monthly meeting. It is
hoped that the information would have been collected from all the schools by
now. The Commissioner would also like to share this information. In addition,
the strategy for further action would also be drawn up by now. Information
about this also should be sent.
15. It
is informed that Additional Secretary (Education) has been appointed as Nodal
Officer for the linguistic minorities.
16. Overall, the position is that there are sporadic efforts for the development of Pahari dialects and languages. It is necessary to add depth to them. so far as the question of making Kangri as the basis for having a single language for Himachal Pradesh is concerned, probably the persons for other districts may not be ready for this. But there will be no objection to preservation of the local culture at various places. In the mean time, Punjabi. Bhoti, KInnauri etc. should have action taken for them in accordance with the safeguards. Presently the linguistic minorities are the victims of indifference.
30. Andamans and
1. The population of different
linguistic groups as per the census 1991 in the Andamans and
|
Language |
Persons |
Percentage |
|
Bengali |
64,706 |
23-05 |
|
Tamil |
53,536 |
19-07 |
|
Hindi |
49,469 |
17-63 |
|
Telugu |
32,979 |
11-75 |
|
Nicobari |
26,206 |
9-34 |
|
Malayalam |
26,070 |
9-29 |
|
Sadri |
12,166 |
4-33 |
|
Kurkh/ Oraon |
9,253 |
3-30 |
|
Munda |
2,945 |
1-05 |
2.
It is informed that Nicobari language is spoken by 81.44 % of the people in
Nicobar tahsil of Nicobar district and by 44.67 % in Noncowrie tahsil. It was
stated in the last Report also that where a language is spoken by more than
sixty percent of the people in a district, it should be declared as additional
official language for that district. As the Andamans and Nicobar Islands is a
3.
Though a number of languages are spoken by a large number of persons in the
Andamans and
4. The reply to most of the questions
is that the administration of the
5. In view of these answers, it is a
matter of surprise that it is said about the maintenance of the Advance
Registers, arrangements have been made in both the primary and the secondary
schools.
6. In the previous years also similar
arguments have been given that no language has been declared as the minority
language but despite this argument the information about the students getting
the education in different languages has been given. And this has been done
this time also. The number of teachers and students for the year 2003 – 04 at
primary, middle and secondary levels for Bengali, Tamil and Telugu is given.
This is as follows -
Primary
Education level
|
Language |
Schools/
Sections |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Bengali |
113 |
8989 |
439 |
|
Tamil |
29 |
2517 |
209 |
|
Telugu |
14 |
1750 |
82 |
Middle
level
|
Language |
Schools/
Sections |
Students |
Teachers |
||||
|
Bengali |
42 |
3977 |
145 |
|
||||
|
Tamil |
15 |
1525 |
62 |
|
||||
|
Telugu |
5 |
827 |
30 |
|
||||
Secondary
level
|
Language |
Schools/
Sections |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Bengali |
27 |
1772 |
97 |
|
Tamil |
12 |
822 |
47 |
|
Telugu |
5 |
442 |
5 |
7. Hindi and Nicobari are not
mentioned in these tables. In the previous years, Malayalam was also used at
the primary level as the medium of instruction. But it has not been mentioned
this year. As in the previous years, Munda or Kurukh have not been mentioned.
8. It has been informed that most of
the schools are affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education and its
syllabi have been adopted. The question papers are in English or Hindi.
9. It is stated that though there are
no declared linguistic minorities but Tamil,Telugu and Bengali are taught from
class one in the concerned schools. This raises some doubts. The language is
being taught and education is through the language are two different things.
This point has been further discussed later.
10. At the secondary level,
it is said that Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali are the media of education.
Then it is also said that question papers are only in Hindi and English. There
is no mention of Nicobari as medium of instruction at the secondary level. Last
time one senior secondary school was stated to be with Nicobari medium in
Nicobar.
11. In the three language formula
mother tongue is said to be the first language. Obviously the tribal languages
like Munda, Kurukh are not considered as mother tongues. Hence they are not
mentioned. The second language is stated to be
Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. The third language is stated to be
Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Malayalam, Sanskrit and Nicobari. English
is started from class III but it is not mentioned in the Three Language
Formula.
12. Director Social Welfare is
appointed as the Nodal Officer. but no department has been mentioned when
talking of machinery. There is no scope for a review committee. There is no
separate officer for complaints from the linguistic minorities. In the answer
to this question, mention is made of Public Grievances Officer
(Administration). It is said that zonal officers are also available at other
places for this work. In addition, Education Officers, Deputy and Assistant
Education Officers are also named. some principals are also mentioned. The
apprehension is that the application is likely to get lost in the host of so
many officers.
13. The question is whether there is
any provision in any law for declaration of linguistic minorities. The
Commissioner has repeatedly stated that there is no need for such declaration.
If there are linguistic minorities, they
are there. When Constitution
talks of the education at the primary stage in mother tongue, it does not say
that the State or the
14. Similar arguments apply to the
receipt of representations and the declaration of a language as additional
official language. I has been discussed elsewhere and it is not necessary to
repeat them here.
15. It is hoped that the
31.
1. The population of
2. The Official Language of the
3. It has been mentioned that Punjab Education code
is applied for recognition of the educational institutions. Presently,
information is given about only two colleges but it has also been clarified
that they do not come within the purview of the linguistic minorities. The
probability of some non official agency running a school through Punjabi language
is remote.
4. Primary education is from class I to VIII. It is
intimated that education is through mother tongue. Punjabi and Tamil are
included in this. There are 228 students in two Tamil schools with three
teachers. for Punjabi language the number of teachers is 350 and the number of
students is stated as 5,000 but the number of schools is not given. Last year
the number of schools was given as 108 and number of teachers as 550. The
number of students was 7,800. The administration will like to let us know the
exact position about these figures.
5. For secondary education, there are 102 schools
for Punjabi in which the number of teachers is 198 and the number of students
8,600. In the secondary education, only class IX and X are included. The number
of schools does not appear to be correct. Last year, the number of schools was
given as 38, of teachers as 160 and the number of students was 1,300.
Especially when, in the answer to the next question, it is said that advance
registers are being maintained in 28 secondary schools. The figures will have
to be verified.
6. It is stated that there is no shortage of
teachers and all the posts are filled up. similarly there is no shortage of
textbooks. Last year information was given about the training of teachers but
this is not there this time.
7. It has been said that Punjab Government has been
set up in
8. Director Social Welfare has been appointed as
the Nodal Officer for the linguistic minorities. He is also authorized to
receive the complaints. Being a single district more arrangements than that are
not necessary but arrangements should be made so that the people are aware of
this.
33.
Daman and
1. Daman and
2. Thus there is nothing special about the safeguards for the linguistic minorities.
33. Dadra and Nagar Haveli
1. Dadra and Nagar Haveli is a small
2. English is said to be the Official Language but it is also said that for the office correspondence, Gujarati is also the Official Language. Bhili has not been mentioned.
3. As in the Official Language, Bhili is not used for educational purposes also. At the primary level of education, only Marathi, Gujarati, English and Hindi are mentioned. But no figures have been given. At the secondary level, Hindi is not included and no statistics are given here also.
4. The answer about the Three Language Formula is not clear. Mother tongue is considered to be the first language. The second and the third language are shown as follows –
2nd Language
Gujarati/Marathi/ English/ Hindi/ Hindi/ Hindi/ Gujarati
3rd Language English/English/Gujarati/ English
5. What it means is not clear. English is said to be started from class I.
6. Similarly for recruitment to services English/ Gujarati/ Hindi/ Marathi
has been written. But it does not throw light on the position.
7. It does not appear that the
questionnaire has been answered seriously. The number of schools or students is
not mentioned. It is hoped that they will give it a thought and give full
information. They will also like to decide about Bhili language. At least it
should be used for primary education. Being the
34.
Population of
2. Official language of
1. Receipt and replies to
applications and petitions
2. Publication of government rules, regulations
and notices.
3. Writing of name boards of all the Government
buildings, offices, roads etc,
4. Publication of important Government official
advertisements
5. Record of the proceedings of the Vidhan
Sabha
3. A copy of the rules made under the Official Language Act
could not be obtained despite request to the Secretary Languages for it.
4. The Languages Department has issued a circular to all the
departments and the Directorate of Information and Publicity for publication of
the important notices etc. in Urdu and
Punjabi. But information is not available as to how many rules etc. have been
published as a result of this circular. It has been informed that Directorate
of Information and Publicity issues the news regarding Delhi Government to the
Punjabi and Urdu newspapers and the Government magazine ‘
5. It is reported that the applications are received in
minority languages and the replies thereto are also given in the same language.
But in the discussions in the Taraqui e Urdu Hind and
6. On the other hand, the Language Department has that
workshops, essay competitions have been held to teach Urdu and Punjabi
languages to the Government employees/ officers.
7. It has been said that special concessions are given to the
linguistic minorities institutions in respect of recognition and grant in aid
but the copy of these rules was not available. What sort of concessions are
given is also not specified.
8. In the context of education, a list of the recognized
institutions is given. There are 71 schools at the primary level which are
authorised to teach through the
medium
of Urdu or to teach Urdu specially. There are 15 schools at the secondary level
and 16 at the middle level of education. Similarly there are 6 schools for Bengali medium/
language where Bengali is medium up to class V. for Tamil medium. language, the
list is of seven schools. Here also the medium is Tamil up to class V. The
medium up to class V is Punjabi also and the list is of 24 schools. Sindhi
medium/ language has three; Telugu medium/ language has two; Malayalam medium/
language has two schools listed. In addition there are three schools run by the
New Delhi Municipal Committee with Urdu medium.
9. The number of students or the teachers for these schools has
not been given. It was stated that the information will be sent on receipt from
the Director of Education but could not be received by us.
10. At the primary stage Gujarati is also said to be the medium
but the list of the schools is not given. In all these schools, Hindi is being
taught from class I. At the primary stage the information is given about the
educational facility given by the Delhi Municipal Corporation and the New Delhi
Municipal Committee has been given which is as follows -
Delhi Municipal Corporation
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
74 |
22,189 |
452 |
|
Tamil |
6 |
545 |
8 |
|
Punjabi |
2 |
310 |
7 |
|
Telugu |
1 |
194 |
2 |
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
3 |
118 |
14 |
11. At the secondary level Hindi, Urdu and English are the
media of instruction. Other languages can be taken as the third language. The
information about the secondary schools is incomplete which is as follows -
Directorate of Education
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
8 |
2,219 |
74 |
|
Punjabi |
8 |
3,696 |
103 |
|
Language |
Schools |
Students |
Teachers |
|
Urdu |
9 |
696 |
46 |
12. Obviously there is
nothing to be said on this incomplete information except that effort should be
made to collect the information so that the Government themselves and others
can be aware of it.
13. The Advance Registers for knowing the linguistic preference
of the students regarding the choice of language are said to be maintained. The
Directorate of Education has again issued orders on 26.03.2004 regarding this.
14. In the Three Language Formula, the mother tongue has been
accepted as the first language. The second language can be from amongst Hindi,
English, Urdu, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Bengali or some other Modern Indian Language.
English is taught as the third language from class I. Why it is called third
language and not second is not clear. may be it is because the Treta yug
preceded Dwapar.
15. From a circular, it appears that for taking a language as
second language, only six students need be there whereas generally there should
be thirty students in a class in the city area and twenty in the rural areas.
16. It has been intimated that there are no vacancies in the
New Delhi Municipal Committee. In the Delhi Municipal Corporation, the
vacancies are stated to be 55 for Urdu, four for Tamil and two for Telugu. The
action to fill up the vacancies is being taken by the Subordinate Selection
Board. There is provision for training of 20 teachers each for Urdu and Punjabi
in the two Divisional Educational Training Institutes. In the year 2003 – 04,
59 Punjabi teachers were trained. The training programme for the Urdu teachers
could not be arranged.
17. It is reported that there is no shortage of textbooks. a
list of the books published in Urdu is enclosed which is about the books in
different subjects for class XII. It is admitted that there was some delay in
supply of the books due to the delay in the publication. But now the books have
been published and have been made available. In the meeting with the
representatives of the linguistic minorities, a lot has been said about the
lack of books. It is being referred to later.
18. Academies for development of Urdu and Punjabi in the state
have been set up in 1981.
19.
20.
21.
22. It has been reported that for recruitment to the state
services only English and Hindi are the media. Urdu and
23. Language Department has been declared as the Nodal
Department. The Additional Secretary of the Department will be the Nodal
Officer. Language Department has issued
circular to all the departments to nominate nodal officers in the context of problems
of the linguistic minorities. A list of 22 departments where such nomination
has been done is given. These include Directorate of Education, Drug
Controller, Police Commissioner, Directorate of Information and Publicity,
chief Electoral Officer and Transport Commissioner. Other departments are being
reminded to do this early.
24. The linguistic minorities are informed about the action
being taken for them through the
newspapers by the Language Department. There are no pamphlets prepared
yet but it is under consideration. Advertisements were issued to propagate the
new Official Language Act. These contained information about the purposes for
which these additional Official Languages could be used. This advertisement
appeared in the Urdu and Punjabi newspapers in those languages. It will be proper to issue similar
advertisements about the educational rights also so that the linguistic
minorities can be aware of their rights.
25. In
1. There are no recruitment rules for Urdu teachers. They are being recruited considering them as Urdu (language) teachers. As a result they are not able to teach other subjects (Maths, Science etc.).
2. There are about 306 schools in
3. Urdu can be
taken as the thrd language in the Three Language Formula but even the syllabus is not yet prepared.
4. On the pretext of lesser number of students
(which itself is due to the shortage of the teachers), some of the schools are
on the verge of being closed. For example the school at
5. There is difference of opinion about the number
of vacancies. According to a survey by the
6. Generally the shortage of books was referred to.
A special reference was made to Political Science. It was stated that the
syllabus was changed two years back. Since then, there is no textbook. The
absence of help books is creating even more problems. The model questions are
available in English and Hindi
but not in Urdu. The teachers have done the
translation of these free of charge but the directorate has pleaded inability
to get them printed.
7. There is no unanimity on the technical vocabulary in Urdu, therefore there is difference in the technical words use in the books and by the examiners. The examiners do not give questions from the books. They merely translate them.
8. When the students who have read through Urdu
medium take Hindi in sixth class, they have to
read the same books as are prescribed for Hindi medium students. Thus they are
expected to achieve six years language competence in one year. There should be separate books for them.
9. In enquiry about the up gradation of the
madarasas, it was said that it is not very successful. The
basic reason is said to be that the madarasa give religious instructions which
can be done in one group. for studying other subjects, there have to be
competence wise classes. This does not suit the madarasas. Only some of the
madarasas have benefited from this scheme.
10. The number of Punjabi and Urdu schools is
negligible in comparison with their population. More schools are needed.
11. For each educational district, there should one
Punjabi/ Urdu officer or at least a nodal officer.
26. Overall though Urdu and Punjabi have been declared as co Official Languages and some schools are being run by tradition for various languages, the situation can not be said to be satisfactory. The position about the textbooks does not appear to be so serious but that about the teachers is decidedly so. The Punjabi and Urdu academies have been stopped from appointing part time teachers and the number of their teachers is dwindling but no steps are being taken to appoint regular teachers. The biggest problem referred to by the representatives was about the feelings of indifference on the part of officers towards this situation. Fortunately this category does not include the present Nodal Officer and it is expected that some thing positive will be done.
35.
1.
2. In the different zones, the policy of
the neighbouring states is adopted in respect of education. In
3. In the remaining two parts, Three
Language Formula is adopted. The third language is from amongst Hindi, French,
Sanskrit and Arabic. French and Arabic are not usually part of the Three
Language Formula but in the special situation of
4. There are four medical and four
engineering institutes in
5. Most of the questions have the reply “Not Applicable” which is in accordance with the circumstances of the State.
6. For recruitment to the state services,
one should be resident for five years of the State. A similar rule is there in
7. In the visit to the State, only one grievance came up that Arabic does not have a uniform syllabus in the different zones. The officers explained that the syllabus of the neighbouring states has to be followed and hence it is different in different zones.
8. Director Social Welfare is the Nodal Officer for the linguistic minorities in the State.
36.
1. The recent census gives
population of
2. English is the Official Language. There is no other Official Language though it was recommended earlier that Malayalam and Mahl should be having this honour. Mahl is being taught in primary education up to class V. After that, Malayalam is the medium. No applications are received in Mahl nor is there any arrangements to reply in that language. There is no translator and thus there is no question of issue of orders in it.
3. There are no linguistic
minority institutes in the
4. Though it has been said that there are teachers in sufficient number but the ratio of 1 : 186 is not understood so long as this number is not for Mahl language only. The responsibility of the preparation of textbooks is that of Education Department. It is said that there is no shortage of books.
5. No answer has been given in respect of the first language in the Three Language Formula though it is obviously Malayalam. English is the second language and Hindi is the third one. English is started from class IV.
6. The group C and D posts
are all filled up from the natives of
7. Since 1983, Government
are publishing a Mahl edition of Lakshadweep Times, a daily newspaper. All
India Radio,
8. The Union Territory is a small area and, therefore, no need is felt for a formal structure. For receiving the complaints and their disposal, video conferencing facility is available.
9. Overall,
37. Government of India Ministries
1. In the last Report, an attempt had been made to give information
about the action being taken by the various ministries of the Government of
India of significance to the linguistic minorities. These ministries are not
usually connected directly with the linguistic minorities but their schemes can
assist them in running their activities for the development of languages and
protection of culture.
2. It has been said that it is difficult to get the information from the
states and, except for one or two states, information is obtained after
repeated reminders and personal efforts. It is even more difficult to get the
information from the ministries. On the one hand, a questionnaire can not be
devised for the ministries or the departments so that the information can be
obtained. On the other hand, what to say of the information on the basis of
general correspondence, even letters about pointed enquiry about a specific
issue remain unanswered. As an example, we talk about the Culture Department.
3. In September 2004, UNESCO had organized an international conference
in
4. Under the impression that this statement gives the gist of the policy
of the Government of India, the Culture Department was requested to make
available a copy of the address and any other material that had been presented
in the conference. Despite reminder, no reply was received. It was, therefore,
attempted to get the information by personally meeting the Secretary Culture.
It should not have been done because the result was not as per expectation. In
fact. The Secretary said that such addresses are given routinely by the
Minister, how many copies of such speeches can be kept. As the interest was not
in the speech per se, but in the measure taken by the Department, information
was sought about them. All that was given was a copy of the an article of
UNESCO of year 1999 which had already been studied through the inter net. After
this again, a letter was written to her but no reply was received. Nothing
could be known about the recommendations of the conference. This is
indifference or something more than can not be said.
5. Almost similar is the situation about other departments also.
Incidentally, in the information given to the conference, the representative of
UNESCO, Shri P. R. Parera said that there are about 7,000 languages in the
world of which only 400 are expected to survive, If coordinated efforts are
made, then 2,000 can be saved for the next 300 years. Half of the languages of
he world are located in eight countries only. In
Human Resource Development Ministry
6. The Ministry has
constituted a Commission for affiliation of he minority educational
institutions to the Central Universities. This has been discussed in some
detail in the first chapter and need not be discussed here. For affiliation,
only those communities will be considered as are notified by the Government of
India. No notification has yet been issued to declare any linguistic group. The
six universities affiliation will be considered are as follows.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
As has been said before, for the linguistic minorities, even if they are
notified, there will be no advantage in getting affiliated to these
universities.
7. All India Technical Education council has, in March 2003, issued
guidelines. These guidelines are issued in implementation of the orders of the
Supreme Court in October 2002. It says, inter alia, that the institutions
managed by the minorities will not have more than fifty seats reserved as
management seats and while deciding these seats, regard will be paid to the
actual persons from the minority community admitted in the last five years.
Rest of the seats will be filled up on the basis of the general examination.
8. Such institutions as are not getting assistance of any type, are also
expected to have fifty percent members of the Governing committee as represent
prominent educationists, educational administrators, experts in the concerned
field or the professionals from the industrial institutions so that the quality
of education can be maintained.
Tourism
and Culture Ministry (Culture Department)
9. This has been discussed above.
Tribal Affairs Ministry
10. The Tribal Affairs Ministry was considering the national policy for
the tribals but what happened in this is not known.
11. The Ministry had written, in the context of our letter, to the
Tribal Research Institutes in all the states
asking them to inform them about the action being taken for the
development of the tribal languages. whether a reply was received or not in not
indicated. Attention should be paid to this.
Home Affairs Ministry
12. The Home Affairs Ministry has reconstituted the National Integration
Council. No further information has been received about this. It is hoped that
the meeting of the Council will be held in the near future and the safeguards
for the linguistic minorities will also be considered by it.
13. It is noted that the Census Commissioner has not yet released the
linguistic profile on the basis of the census 2001. He should be asked to take
urgent action for this.
14. Earlier also it has been said that the Census Commissioner does not
prepare the information about the languages the number of whose speakers is
less than 10,000 at the all India level. It was recommended that this condition
should be removed. It is once again stressed upon.
15. In the last Report, it was said that English is the official
language of
16. Similarly the official language of other
1.
Before concluding this Report, it will be in order to have a brief review of
the attention being paid to the problems of the linguistic minorities and their
aspirations. It can be said without reservation that Kerala deserves three
cheers for their efforts. The residents do have some problems but they are
insignificant compared to what their counterparts are experiencing in some
other states. The Government and the administration have a very healthy
attitude towards them. Kerala has recently extended the facilities to Konkani
community. It is hoped that they will extend it to Tulu community also whose
speakers are almost double of Konkani speakers.
2. By
and large the states in the South have a better appreciation of the concerns of
the linguistic minorities. Karnataka has set up academies for the development
of Urdu, Tulu, Kodagu and Konkani. It is
hoped that these academies, other than Urdu, will be able to prepare the text
books for introduction of Tulu, Kodagu and Konkani as medium for primary
schools. As remarked elsewhere Tamil Nadu is in the forefront of providing
facilities for education to linguistic minorities in their languages. It is
expected that they will also take steps to promote Sourashtra language.
Publication of notices etc. in minority languages will enable the linguistic
minorities to appreciate the laws and provisions concerning them.
3. In the Western part, Maharashtra and Gujarat are doing well but the
allocations for the academies by
4.
5. Going East,
6. In the North East (seven sisters and the little brother
7. Of the Union territories,
8. So that is, in a nutshell the position. Not very encouraging as was
remarked at the beginning but not altogether hopeless. Constant endeavour is a
must to raise them up the level of practical policies for the linguistic
minorities especially far the minor linguistic groups. It must, however, be
remarked that this is a very inadequate summary of the situation and the
chapter of the state or territory should be read to form a correct idea about
the situation prevailing there. This has been done in the preceding chapters
subject to the information being available about these states through their
replies or other wise.
9. And what of the future prospects and recommendations. It is
customary to give a list of recommendations which is useful for focusing the
attention on these and for ignoring whatever has been sent elsewhere. It is not
our intention to do so because there are no such recommendations. This is not a
Report for giving directions for taking certain actions but for describing the
prevalent situation and for giving suggestions to the State Governments for
removing the difficulties faced by the linguistic minorities.
10. There
are no common suggestions for all the states except if it is that all the
states must set up high level committee to monitor the implementation of the
safeguards. Kerala has done so and the committee headed by Chief Minister is
meeting regularly.
11. A corollary of the above will be to have a senior officer as member
secretary of the above committee and also the Nodal Officer. In fact, following
the advice of the Chairman, Minority Commission,
12. A crying need is for orientation of the officers of the State
Governments at various levels in respect of the provision of safeguards to the
linguistic minorities. They need to be sensitised about these as the language
is an emotional issue and careless approach is dangerous. It is said that half
the trouble in Ganganagar (Rajasthan) was that there were no Punjabi knowing
officers posted in the area which is populated by Punjabis in a large number.
13. It is not proper to keep on going to the past to justify something
that, in my opinion, needs no justification, being the very basis of the
democratic vales. As Ricardo Semlar says in his book ‘The seven-day weekend’
that
“It all
goes back to a simple formula: Democracy requires freedom, which requires
acceptance of diversity, which can not happen without respect.”
What we are asking for is respect for the
linguistic minorities, their language, their culture and their customs, because
we keep reminding ourselves that we are the biggest (or is it the largest)
democracy in the world. Even so, I can not help except quote what I did as the
concluding paragraph of the last Report but with the rider that it applies not
only to the State Governments but also to the Ministries in the Government of
India. The quote itself is from the last paragraph of the Government of India
Memorandum of 1956 viz.
"We wish to emphasize that no guarantees can secure a minority against every kind of discriminatory
policy
of
a
State
Government. Governmental activity at State level affects virtually every sphere of a person's life and a democratic Government must reflect the moral and political standards of the people. Therefore, if the dominant group is hostile to the minorities,
the
lot
of
minorities
is
bound
to
become
unenviable. There can be no substitute for a sense of fair play on the part of the majority and a corresponding
obligation
on
the
part
of
the
minorities
to
fit
themselves
in
as
elements
vital
to
the integrated
and
ordered
progress
of
the State.”
Appendix - 1
National
Commissioner Linguistic Minorities
Former
Commissioners
1.
Shri B. Malik,
Retd. Chief Justice,
July 30, 1957 to June 30,1962
2.
Shri Anil K. Chandra
Former Union Minister
March 19, 1963 to April 24, 1966
3.
Smt. M. Chandrasekhar,
Former Union Minister
October 27, 1967 to April 01,1970
4.
Smt. Devaki Gopidas,
Ex-Member of Parliament
August 16, 1971 to May 31, 1973
5.
Smt. Neera Dogra,
Former Chairperson,
Central Social Welfare Board.
March 26, 1974 to May 16, 1977
6.
Shri Bishnu Prasad,
Ex-Member of Parliament
March 21, 1988 to March 12, 1990
7.
Shri R.K. Saiyed,
Former SecretaryMinistry of Communications and
DG Posts & Telegraphs
September 22, 1990 to May
11, 1993
8. Dr. Harbhajan Singh Deol,
Ex-Professor & HOD ,
National Integration Chair
October 16, 1996 to October 15, 1999
Shri H. S. Deol Shri B.Malik Shri Anil K. Chanda
Our Commissioners
Shri R. K. Saiyed Smt. M. Chandrashekhar
Shri Bishnu Prasad Smt. Neera Dogra Smt. Devaki Gopidass
Appendix - 2
Names, posts, addresses and
jurisdiction of Organization
Commissioner Linguistic
Minorities
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
Headquarters
40, Amar Nath Jha Marg,
Illahabad – 211 001 (U.P.)
Commissioner
Shri Kewal Krishan
Sethi
2468549 (Office)
2230809 (Residence)
9415235313 (Mobile)
Deputy Commissioner
Dr. Izzatullah
2469566 (Office)
9415317382 (Residence)
Assistant Commissioner (HQ)
(North zone, Central Zone)
Shri Shishir Kumar Tripathi
2468560
(Office)
Zonal Office, Kolkata
(East Zone, North East Zone)
67,
Kolkata – 700069
ssistant Commissioner
Shri S. K. Upadhyaya
22373572 (Office)
Zonal Office,
(West Zone)
Building No.
23(1), Fort,
Assistant
Commissioner
(Post is vacant)
2422764 (Office)
Zonal Office,
Chennai
(South Zone)
Rajaji Bhavan,
Second Floor, E
Wing,
Besant nagar,
Chennai – 600090
Assistant
Commissioner
(Post is vacant)
24919348 (Office)
NATIONAL COMMISSIONER LINGUISTIC MINORITIES
Questionnaire for 42nd Report
(For the Period from July, 2003 to June, 2004)
Date for receipt of information
October 15, 2004
Name of the State /
Name of Nodal Officer ……………………………………………..
Designation and address
of the Nodal Officer …………………………………….
………………………………………
Telephone Number of Nodal
Officer office ……………….
mobile ……………………
E mail address ………………………..
A. Language Profile
1. Total Population of
the State/ UT. (as per 2001 census)
2. Total Population of the State/ UT (as per
1991 census)
3. Languages spoken (in descending order)
|
Language |
Number of speakers |
Percentage |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Please include all
languages whose speakers are in excess of one percent of total population. If, however, the
percentage is less than one but concerned linguistic groups is residing in a
compact area (district/ tahsil/ town) where their number is more than 15 % of
population, such languages should be included in the list.)
(Note – The language profile is not limited to
languages included in Schedule VIII of Constitution but extended to all
languages)
|
4. (a)
Are there Areas where Minority Languages are spoken by more than
60 % of population (of the area). |
YES/ NO |
(b) If answer is YES, please specify the district/
tehsil/ taluk/ town concerned.
|
District |
|
Language |
Percentage |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(a) Are
there Areas (District/ tehsil/taluk/
town) where Minority Languages are
spoken by more than 15 % of population (of the area). |
YES/ NO |
(b) If answer is YES, please specify the district/
tahsil/ taluk/ town concerned.
|
District |
|
Language |
Percentage |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(You may have to attach a separate sheet. In case
the list is the same as attached to our 34th Report, reproduced on
our website www.nclm.nic.in;
you need not give the names. In case there are variations – additions, deletions,
please give the details. )
B. OFFICIAL LANGUAGES
6. Name of the Official Language of the State/
UT
7.
(a) Is there any other language
(other than English) declared as
Official Language. YES/ NO
(b)
If YES, please specify the languages and the extent of their usage
|
Language |
Extent of area |
Purpose for which it can be used |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Note – If it covers the entire state, please
mention
|
8. (a)
Are important rules, regulations, notices etc. published in Minority
Languages in those areas where their speakers constitute 15% or more of the
local population? |
YES/ NO |
(b) If the answer is YES, please specify the
details of such publications during the year.
(Note – Please give the
information language-wise. )
|
9 (a) Whether representations/petitions are
received in Minority Languages? |
YES/ NO |
|
(b)
Whether such representations/ applications are replied to in the same
language. |
YES/ NO |
|
(c )
If the answer is NO , kindly specify
the problems faced in doing so. |
|
C. LINGUISTIC MINORITY INSTITUTIONS AND
GRANTS-IN-AID.
|
10. (a)
Are the Linguistic Minority groups given any special treatment for
recognition/ registration of their institutions? |
YES/ NO |
|
(b) If YES, how do they
differ from the normal rules? |
|
|
(c)
Is the list of the recognized minority institutions kept
separately with
i.
Registrar of Societies
ii.
Director of Education
iii.
Any other agency (please specify) |
|
11. Furnish language-wise number of educational
institutions regarding recognition and grants-in-aid by the State Govt./UT
Administration .
|
Language |
Grants-in-aid |
Recognition |
||||
|
Applied
for |
Sanctioned |
Applications
Pending |
Applied
for |
Sanctioned |
Applications
Pending |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
D. PRIMARY EDUCATION
|
12.
Which classes constitute primary/ upper primary/ elementary stage of education. |
Primary Class I to ___ Upper
Primary Class ___ to ____ Elementary Class I to |
|
13. Mother tongue (including non schedule
languages ) in which primary education is imparted. |
1. 2. 3 4. . |
|
14. What is the minimum number of pupils
required in a class/ school to provide this facility? |
|
|
15. Indicate the standard from which the
Regional Language is taught to linguistic minority pupils in such schools as
have education through mother tongue. |
|
(Note – It is expected that
Elementary level will cover both primary and upper primary stages.)
16. Furnish
the data on educational facilities at Primary/ Elementary level provided during the academic year 2003 – 04 to linguistic
minority pupils as per Performa placed below.
Educational Facilities in
Primary Education
provided to Linguistic
Minorities
|
Language |
Schools
|
Students |
Teachers |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(The information may please
be given separately for primary/ upper primary/ elementary stages. It is
expected that Elementary level will cover both primary and upper primary
stages. In case the elementary stage is there, information for other stages
need not be given separately.)
E. SECONDARY EDUCATION
|
17.
Which classes constitute secondary
stage of education. |
|
|
18. Languages (including non schedule
languages ) which are medium of education. |
1. 2. 3. |
|
19.
What is the minimum number of students required to extend this facility? |
|
|
20. (a) What medium (media) are allowed in
the examinations held by Board of Secondary Education.
(b) Are the question papers set
in each of these language?
(c) If not, reasons therefor. |
|
21. Furnish the data on educational facilities
provided during the academic year 2003 - 04 to linguistic minority
students as per Performa placed below.
Educational Facilities in
Secondary Education
provided to Linguistic
Minorities
|
Language |
Schools
|
Students |
Teachers |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
F. MAINTENANCE OF ADVANCE REGISTERS
|
22. Are advance registers for registering
linguistic preference of linguistic minority pupils being maintained at the
Primary stage of education? |
YES/
NO |
|
23. How many Primary schools are maintaining
Advance Registers? |
|
|
24. Are advance registers for registering
linguistic preference of linguistic minority pupils being maintained at the
Secondary stage of education? |
YES/
NO |
|
25. How many Secondary schools are maintaining Advance
Registers? |
|
G.THREE-LANGUAGE FORMULA
26. Is the
first language the mother tongue? YES/
NO
If
the answer is NO, which is the first language?
27. What
language(s) can be studied as second language.
28. What
language(s) can be studied as third language.
29 At what
stage is English introduced as a subject? Class
____
H. TEACHERS
30.
(a) Are there enough teachers
to teach Minority Languages at the Primary stage of Education
(b) If answer to (a) is No, please furnish details.
|
Language |
Posts sanctioned |
Posts vacant |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
31.
(a) Are there enough teachers to
teach through the medium of Minority Languages at the Secondary stage of
Education?
(b) If answer to (a) is No, please furnish details.
|
Language |
Posts sanctioned |
Posts vacant |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Note – This question is about the teachers
teaching through the medium of minority languages. Please do not include the
teachers teaching the language as a subject.)
32. Kindly indicate action being taken to fill up
the vacancies. If there are specific problems in filling up the posts, these
may kindly be indicated.
33 What
are the training facilities for Minority Language teachers? Please indicate language-wise names of
training institutions together with their annual intake.
34.
Please indicate language-wise number of Minority Language teachers
trained annually during the preceding academic years.(Year 2003 - 04)
I. TEXT BOOKS
|
35. |
(a)
Are there sufficient text books available in the Minority Language at the Primary and
Secondary stages of education? |
YES/ NO |
|
|
(b)
Are these books are reaching the students in time? |
YES/ NO |
(c) If
answer to (a) or (b) is NO, please specify the languages and the classes? Indicate the steps being taken to overcome
the shortage or do away with the delays.
36. What
is the agency for preparation, publication and/ or procurement of text-books in
Minority Languages.
J. ACADEMIES IN MINORITY LANGUAGES
37. (a) Have the Government set up any
academies (or other organizations) for development of Minority Languages?
(b) If so ,
Kindly furnish the following details.
|
Language |
Name |
Date set up |
Budget for year 2003-04 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Kindly enclose a brief account of the activities
of the Academies in the year 2003 – 04.which should include the
achievements for the year)
38.
(a) Are there any schemes to
give financial assistance to Organizations / individuals to work for promotion
of Minority Languages.
(b)
If so, please specify the assistance being given to the Organizations along
with objectives.
|
Language |
Name of Organization |
Grants for year 2003-04 |
Objectives |
|
|
|
|
|
(c )
Please specify the assistance being given to the individuals along with
objectives.
|
Language |
Number of Individuals |
Assistance for year
2003-04 |
Particulars |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Names of individuals need not be given. Please
specify the number and the amount given as assistance. Particulars will mention
the reason for assistance such as Old age pension, publication of manuscripts,
etc. each item may be shown separately.)
K. RECRUITMENT
39. (a)
Mention the language(s) which is (are) the medium (media) of examination for
recruitment to State services, cadres or posts.
(b)
Are question papers prepared in these languages?
40.
(a) Is knowledge of Regional/
Official Language a pre-requisite for recruitment to State services, cadres or
posts?
(b) If
so, please indicate the standard
desired.
41. (a)
Are there domiciliary restrictions in the matters of recruitment to State
services?
(b) If yes, please specify the
restrictions.
L. MACHINERY FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF SAFEGUARDS
42. Which
Department is in charge of the linguistic minority affairs?
|
43. (a) Is there a committee set up at state
level to monitor and review the implementation of the safeguards |
YES / NO. |
(b)
If so, what is the .composition of the committee?
(c
) Did the committee meet during the year 2003 – 04. If so, when?
(d) if the answer to (a) is 'NO' , how is the monitoring done?
44. (a)
Who are the Officers entrusted with the Linguistic Minority affairs at the
District level?
(b)
Is there a committee set up at district level to monitor and review the
implementation of the safeguards. YES / NO.
(c
) If so, what is the .composition of the committee?
(d
) Did the committee meet during the year 2003 – 04. If so, when?
(Please
mention district wise)
45. (a)
Is a Minority Commission set up for the State. YES/
NO
(b)
If answer is YES, is it allotted the responsibility for the linguistic
minorities also. YES/
NO
(c)
If the answer is YES, please specify the tasks allocated.
(d)
Kindly indicate if the Commission is expected to submit a periodical report on
the implementation of the safeguards.
(e)
If so, when was the last report submitted.
M. PAMPHLETS
46. What is
the mechanism for informing the Linguistic Minorities about the concessions
being given to them and the facilities provided to them.
47.
(a) Have any pamphlets/ booklets
detailing safeguards for linguistic minorities issued during the year 2003 –
04?
(If so, please enclose a copy)
N. GRIEVANCES
/ COMPLAINTS RECEIVED FROM LINGUISTIC MINORITIES BY THE STATE/UT
48. (a) Has any officer being designated at the
State level to receive complaints/ representations?
(b) If
so, his designation
(c) Has
any officer being designated at the district level to receive complaints/
representations?
(d) If
so, his designation
49. Please describe main problems faced by the
Government and Administration in
actual implementation of safeguards
provided to Linguistic Minority.
50. Any other information the State Government will
like to bring to the notice of Commissioner, Linguistic Minorities.
Notes –
1.Please send this
information, complete in all respects, to Commissioner Linguistic Minorities by
October 15, 2004 to enable him to present the report by due date.
2.This format indicates the
line on which information is to be sent. It does not have enough space for all
the information called for. Kindly use this format to draw up the report by
providing sheets for the information. Where the statistics so require kindly
use separate sheets for the information.
3.Reply may be prepared in
English or Hindi as may be convenient.
4.Whenever State Government
is mentioned, the expression includes Union Territory Administration.
5.If you need any
clarifications, please contact Deputy Commissioner ( Office phone 2468566,
Mobile 0-94153-17382, Fax 0532-2468544.
6.E mail address nclm@sancharnet.in
7.Website http://www.nclm.nic.in
8.Postal Address 40, Amar Nath Jha Marg,
