Language activists demands constitutional rights of the ‘non-scheduled’ languages at National Kosali Language Conference, Titilagarh. In a press release collectively issued by Campaign for Language Equality and Rights (CLEAR), Kosali Bhasa Surakhya Samiti, Titilagarh, & Kosali Sanskrutik Mahajot, Titilagarh collectively uphold the demands of various language communities in India to provide their languages the much-needed constitutional status.
Language activists from around India today, on International Mother Language Day, at National Kosali Language Conference, Titilagarh demand the Union government to recognize Indian languages recommended by various Committee by including them in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution of India without any further delay.
| In the past few years the central government has included different Indian languages in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution by the recommendation of various committees. However, it isn’t following any yardstick in doing so.It shows prudence on the part of Indian government in being flexible in recognizing the complexity of linguistic diversity in India. The language activists from CLEAR (Campaign for Language Equality and Rights), Kosali Bhasa Surakhya Samiti, Kosali Sanskrutik Mahajot and others, today expressed their hope that: 1) All the Indian languages recommended by various committees, pending under active consideration of the Union Government to be included in the 8thSchedule of the Constitution. 2) Initiate medium of teaching in mother tongue of the children at least in primary levels. 3) Make official language of the state and allow all official work in the language of the region in government offices. 4) Form literary academy for the promotion of literature of non-scheduled Indian languages in their respective states and affiliate with Kendra Sahitya Akademy. |
The activists also emphasized the need of updating the recommended list for any new demands from any language community since the submitting of the report.
It is said that the right of a mother tongue is a basic cultural right of the people which link them with their economy, socio-cultural system, and political right. UNESCO has recognized that the concept of language equality among all languages is important irrespective of whether the languages have a script or not. Furthermore, the union government claimed that it would promote the mother tongue based multilingual education to reduce the school drop-out rates. In this regard, we appeal it to include all the Indian languages demanding to be included in the 8th schedule of the Constitution of India to make that initiative to succeed uniformly for all language communities.
The language activists under CLEAR, a pan-Indian organization comprising the representatives of more than 40 languages in India, are engaging with various Union and state governments to sensitize them on language issues and express the demands of various language communities.
The press meet was attended by Aazhi Senthil Nathan (Secretary, CLEAR), Saket Sreebhushan Sahu (Coordinator Non-Schedule Group, CLEAR), Kundan Amitabh (Member, CLEAR & Angika Language representative) Dr Deepak Pawar ( Founder member CLEAR & representative of Marathi language) Kousik Maiti, (Representative of Bangla language).