44th Report Final

Hkk"kktkr vYila[;dksa ds vk;qDr Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities

pkSaokyhloka izfrosnu Forty fourth Report

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vk;qDr Hkk"kktkr vYila[;d vYila[;d dk;Z ea=kky; Hkkjr ljdkj Commissioner Linguistic Minorities Ministry of Minority Affairs Government of India

VsyhQkasu@Telephone: 2468565, 2468593, 2468560, 2468814 40] vej ukFk >k ekxZ rkj@Telegram: LIMINCOM fgUnh rkj@Hindi Telegram : Hkk”kkYik;qDr bykgkckn-211002 QSDl la0@Fax No. 0532-2468544 211002

40, Amar Nath Jha Marg

Allahabad-

fnukad@Date: From : COMMISSIONER LINGUISTIC MINORITIES, To, THE PRESIDENT OF INDIA, Your Excellency, I have the pleasure and the privilege to present the forty fourth Annual Report to Your Excellency for the period July 2005 to June 2006 prepared as per Article 350- B (2) of the Constitution. 2. Based on the information received in respect of implementation of the constitutional provisions and Nationally Agreed Scheme of Safeguards provided to linguistic minorities during the period, the report recommends action to be taken by the Central Government and various State Governments / Union Territory Administration, to assuage the feelings of the linguistic minorities. 3. As per the provisions in the constitution, the Report may kindly be laid before each house the parliament. Yours faithfully,

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( SURESH A. KESWANI) Contents Serial No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

Preface Introduction Arunachal Pradesh Assam Andhra Pradesh Orissa Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand Karnataka Kerala Gujarat Goa Chattisgarh Jammu & Kashmir Jharkhand Tamilnadu Tripura Nagaland West Bengal Punjab Bihar Madhya Pradesh Manipur Maharashtra Mizoram Meghalaya Rajasthan Sikkim Haryana Himanchal Pradesh Andaman & Nicobar Islands Chandigarh Daman & Diu Dadra & Nagar Haveli Delhi Puducherry Lakshadweep Government of India Ministries 3

Page No. 5 8 23 24 31 40 42 46 48 53 58 63 67 69 71 74 81 85 88 92 94 97 101 104 106 108 111 118 119 122 123 124 127 128 129 134 136 138

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Conclusion & Suggestions

140

Annexure I II III IV V VI VII

Speakers of minority languages Proposed restructuring of CLM organization Present CLM Suresh A. Keswani w.e.f. June the 8th 2006 Office of the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities Former Commissioners Minutes of Chief Ministers’ Conference 1961 Questionnaire for the 44th Report

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144 145 146 147 148 149 156

PREFACE This is the forty fourth report of the Office of Commissioner Linguistic Minorities (CLM Organization) covering the period July 2005 to June 2006. The present commissioner has taken charge w.e.f. June 2006 and therefore this report is based on the replies received in response to the Questionnaire forwarded by the Office of the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities Organization to 28 State Governments and Seven Union Territories administrations during the predecessor’s tenure. After appointment of the present Commissioner, the office of the Linguistic Minority Commission during the course of last one year has undergone further reduction in the effective strength of the officers and staff members. The reasons are multifold and varied which have been dealt with elsewhere in this report. It has been noticed by the undersigned that the information provided by the State Govts. or the administration of Union Territories, even with the help of the nodal officers located at all 35 locations in the country is incomplete, sketchy or often outdated and misleading. It had therefore been necessary to go into further details wherever it was found necessary or possible, within the constraints of time, manpower and the costs involved to produce this annual report. The questionnaire system tried in all variations during past few years have established beyond doubt that the issues affecting linguistic minorities need to be dealt with, more seriously than has been possible hitherto. Unfortunately, this very vital organization which was set up as constitutional office by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru’s conscious and deliberate efforts had been allowed to decay into a dysfunctional limb of bureaucracy. The Commission periodically receives stale and outdated information, making it impossible to redress the grievances or initiate investigation. There have in past, been the proposals to close down this constitutional office. No one seems to have gathered the courage to initiate such a move. In my considered opinion, this organization ought to have developed as a prestigious independent interstate institution either under the Ministry of Home where it originated or under the Cabinet Secretariat of the Union Govt. and performed its obligations to support and nurture the spirit of federalism as per the vision of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. How and why this organization failed to rise to the expectations of linguistic minorities could be a subject of independent inquiry. The year 1977 where after for over a decade there was no Chairman of this Commission appointed, appears to be the beginning of the fall. Keeping in

5

view the delicate architecture of the parties ruling the State Governments and the Union Government since last decade and over the criticality of the need to restore the strength of all interstate institutions that were created by our founding fathers has been recognized at several democratic fora. Dealing with the interstate disputes on language related issues, providing level playing field to the linguistic minorities everywhere and executing their constitutional obligation of investigating the implementation or otherwise of the safeguards provided to the linguistic minorities are the core functions that ought to be handled without the allegations of either religious or political bias. The importance of this organization can be realized if one takes a dispassionate look at the nation’s linguistic scenario, where every language of the country has become minority language outside its own state. In some States, no language has remained the language of the majority. The globalization has triggered rapid interstate migrations. The universally accepted fundamental imperative of making primary education available in the mothertongue has produced near hundred per cent literacy levels in all societies all over the world, who have had good governance. The largest democracy with over a billion of population with our kind of linguistic and cultural diversity cannot afford to ignore the constitutional office of the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities and the mandate provided to this office. We have experienced highest levels of migrations from one state to another, particularly among the people living below poverty line, who had to undertake such migrations in search of work for their bread or their survival and existence. These economically weaker immigrants have experienced greatest difficulties when their progeny have been denied primary education in their mother tongues in their new habitats in the host States. The rate of primary school level drop outs among them has often risen to over 70%. The result has been further addition to illiteracy and further addition to the unskilled labour force. These teaming millions with low productivity have added to the intensification of poverty and widening of the gulf of economic disparities. The rise in rural and forest area crimes or like crimes in the slum areas and economically backward regions have sourced the manpower required for their underworld activities or for naxalite type anti-social activities from amongst these type of groups, among others. We are in the Golden Jubilee Year of the formation of CLM Organization which came into being in the year 1957. As a part of the Golden Jubilee Celebrations we had organized a conference of the speakers of minor languages (mostly Adivasis or migrants or hill people) which are in hundreds. We had produced a report of this Conference and circulated to all those who are connected with the activities of this office. Our Golden Jubilee Year Report i.e. 45th Report covering the period of July 2006 to June 2007 is under process at

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various levels. The 44th Report is being presented with due apologies for the shortcomings on account of constraints of logistics. I deem it my benign duty to express my gratitude to the Ministries of the Govt. of India and the Govts. and Administrations of States and Union Territories for the cooperation given by them in discharging my Constitutional obligations. Thanks also to my skeleton office team and my predecessors Mr. K.K. Sethi and Shri Bishnu Prasad all of whom worked tirelessly for producing this Report.

Suresh A. Keswani Commissioner Linguistic Minorities

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INTRODUCTION 1.1

During the course of the year under reference i.e. 2005 to 2006 a new Ministry has been set up by the Union Govt. known as the Ministry of Minority Affairs which has become the nodal Ministry for the constitutional office of the Commissioner of Linguistic Minorities. If one refers to the parliamentary debates immediately preceding the creation of this office in the year 1957, a suggestion to create Ministry of Minority Affairs instead of this Office was raised. After detailed deliberations at the end of the debates however the proposal was dropped. The anxiety of the Parliament to do everything that was necessary and appropriate to assuage the grievances of linguistic minorities has always been bonafide and transparent. The problems have however arisen while translating the plans of the Government’s pious intentions into the meaningful action at the ground level. The level playing field of equality of opportunity ought to have been delivered to the recipient linguistic minorities by the State level administrative and political machinery, which could not be achieved on account of variety of shortcomings.

1.2

What were regarded as the issues of linguistic minority in respect of their education, opportunities of employment and trade and equality of social and political status and their cultural assimilation, have gradually become the areas of conflict and deprivation because of weakening of the constitutional machinery (of CLM organization) that was statutorily installed by the founding fathers. Social tensions and violence experienced at one time in Belgaum area of Karnataka, which produced lots of reports but little ground level action is now being repeated at several locations, most volatile being the happenings in North-East India.

1.3

We have been watching quite helplessly the sufferings of the linguistic minorities of Assam namely Bengalis, Hindi-speaking Biharis, Rajasthanis, Deshwalis (people originating from UP), Telugus and Tamils, not to mention Tea Plantation labourers most of whom are immigrants from Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, MP and Eastern UP. Most of the northeastern States have Nepali population in significant numbers, to which there have been additions recently on account of Maoist movements in Nepal. Bangladesh has also contributed to addition in Bengali speaking immigrants in North-Eastern States. This additional demographic pressure on already frugal economic condition of the agrarian people of the NorthEast has resulted in serious flare up into the violent conflicts.

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1.4

What has been mentioned about Assam and North-East is not less relevant to most parts of country where the process of globalization, liberalization and privatization is going to bring in the labour force or white collar work force from other areas of India. It would therefore be necessary to install the monitoring machinery of the CLM organization as originally envisaged at the level of most parliamentary constituencies where the actual breach of the constitutional safeguards can potentially materialize. We are, however, fortunate that we no longer have 562 princely States with their own rulers and different laws at all locations. Mercifully on achieving the independence in 1947 all 562 principalities had come together to create a federal Govt. of India with States that were formed on linguistic basis as perhaps the only viable method of securing the broad cultural unity in such a vast diversity. The third tier of Panchayati Raj of our Federal Polity is gradually rising with 3.2 million elected representatives out of which nearly 1.1 million are ladies. This bottom layer third tier is potentially expected to revolutionize the existing federal structure and require creation of independent democratic institutions to sustain the unity in our diversity.

1.5

Fifty years ago, we had to accept that the language could be the unifying factor for 562 princely states that were merged into one country. Consequently, the reorganization of States on linguistic basis had resulted into creation of the pockets of linguistic minorities in every State because the geographic boundaries dividing the States could not exactly match the linguistic boundaries that existed since long. This had resulted in creation of pockets of linguistic minorities in every State. With further interstate migrations, every language of India had become a minority language outside its own State. India also had hundreds of minor languages spoken by various tribes, nomadic groups and ethnic Kabilas etc. The Constitution provided protection to most languages. It is our view that no movement like the present one of assisting the preservation and development of the minority languages can be meaningful except as a strong public movement. The very definition of the 'minority language' is that it is spoken by a smaller number and, unless we exercise constant vigil is likely to be overwhelmed by the language spoken by the majority. Even though the intentions of the most of the majority groups in the various states are not averse to the minority languages, (indeed that has never been the case in India), due to a myriad small incidents, many of them unintentional, the use of the minority language is getting discouraged. It was to keep a watch on such aberrations that the office of the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities was envisaged in the Constitution. The objectives can be achieved only if there is a strong public opinion developed to ensure that quick remedies are applied whenever there is a deviation from the norms accepted.

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1.6

Positive action on behalf of speakers of the minority languages is required for which they have to be properly guided and assisted. Simultaneously, the sensitivities of the majority language speakers are to be kept in consideration to save avoidable tensions. They have to be sensitized to the need of the minority language speakers to the extent that any deviation from the norms makes them think about it. Thus we have to cater to the requirements of both the majority and minority groups. This requires a mature, deep understanding of the problem and its consequences and also its solutions.

1.7

It is therefore our intention to organize a strong ground force right from the tahsil/ taluk to the state level to keep a constant watch on the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities. There is an urgent need to have a vigil at the lower levels. This can be ensured by a group of people from both the majority and minority language groups. They can visit the schools to observe how the studies are going on; they can go to the offices to find out if the minority language speakers have any problem facing them. Committees can be constituted which would monitor the implementation of the safeguards at all levels. The Honourable Members of Parliament from across the spectrum of political opinion have been requested to suggest the names of the persons who would be interested in serving on these committees. We would like to emphasize that it is not the intentions to form groups which will be dependent upon the government for support and sustenance. These activities should be undertaken in a spirit of public service without any consideration of personal profits. A committee of such persons with an equally committed bureaucracy will be the best safeguard which the linguistic minorities would have notwithstanding the fact that the Constitution has enshrined many of the cherished values of the true democratic spirit of preserving the language, script and the culture of the smallest group in the country.

1.8

It would be fair to include here the safeguards as have been enshrined in the Constitution and their conversion into practical steps for ensuring that the minority languages are given a fair deal and the linguistic minorities are made to feel as a part of the larger mosaic. Details regarding the provisions in the Constitution can be seen in the earlier Reports but briefly the safeguards are as follows 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;

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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. Advance registration of linguistic preference of 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. 1.9

Each of these safeguards has been envisaged with a certain objective all of which revolve around the basic promise to the linguistic minorities that they will have a place of honour in the State in which they live. It will be readily seen that nowhere the importance of the principal language is compromised. Unfortunately some of the groups seem to think that the use of any language other than theirs is an affront to them. Some of these feelings erupt into undesirable behavior. This only underscores the importance of the awareness programmes and it will be our endeavour to go in for them in a big way. It would be desirable to give historical perspective of the CLM Organization. Historical Perspective of last 50 years of CLM Organization (i) Article 350 B of the Constitution provides for the appointment of a special officer for linguistic minorities, formally designated as the Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities (CLM) in India. In the beginning, the CLM organization which came under Ministry of Home Affairs had its headquarters in New Delhi and there were four regional offices at Chandigarh, Calcutta, Mumbai and Madras. (ii) However, within a short time, the headquarters of CLM Organization was shifted to Allahabad. At a later date, the Mumbai office was shifted to Belgaum and the Chandigarh office was closed down permanently bringing the CLM office staff strength down to the skeleton level. The constitutional office of the CLM was also moved from Ministry of Home Affairs to Social Welfare whereas the subject of official languages and the Centre-State relations

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(iii)

(iv)

1.10

continued with the Home Ministry. The Zonal Councils which used to function hand in hand with CLM organization also continued with the Home Ministry. The CLM organization was however moved to the Ministry of Social Welfare where it was reduced to a section in that Ministry. For 11 long years thereafter no CLM was appointed by the Govt. of India. Almost all senior officers who retired were replaced by deputationists. The Constitutional machinery that was set up with a mandate to investigate the implementation of safeguards was deprived of the investigative machinery (manpower) as well as the investigative tools, i.e. actionable rules and acts which ought to have been framed to translate the safeguards into the rights for linguistic minorities. The CLM office during last 50 years has produced 43 reports to the President of India. No attention was however paid to enact the rules and required legislation to convert the constitutional provisions into actionable acts and rules. This neglect had very adversely affected the cause of Linguistic Minorities in India who are over 16% of the population. The population in the meantime has nearly tripled and crossed one billion, whereas the size of CLM organization has been reduced to 1/3rd of its original strength.

Economic metamorphosis of India and migrations of poorest of poor among linguistic minorities to different States experiencing compounding of their problems of livelihood. (a) During all these years, the economic growth of our country was causing monumental changes in rural India owing to the process of resultant migration of workers from Agriculture to Industry and from one State to another. Science and technology was changing the economic character of this nation. The new economic policies brought liberalization, privatization and globalization further speeding up inter-state migration. At present linguistic minorities are present in every city of importance, in significant numbers. The poorest of the poor of them have however suffered the most in their quest to secure livelihood. The migration of tribals, nomads and socio-economically backward people among linguistic minorities are exposed to the greater threat to their life limb and liberty on account of fast changing socio-political environment in every State and Union Territory. This has also given us greatest opportunity to unite and assimilate and give rise to the Indian Dream of bringing up our productivity. (b)

Rising rate of dropouts in Primary Schools among Linguistic Minorities

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There were two principal areas of the problem. Firstly, the lack of primary education in the mother-tongue of the low-income immigrants caused a large number of primary school drop outs. These dropouts ultimately ended up further adding to the unskilled labour force and intensification of poverty and suffering for the immigrant labour. Secondly, neglect of primary education in minor language pockets directly added to the crimes or naxalite type activities. The violence ridden forest areas and rising level of crimes against immigrant labour in urban areas are a point in the case. The nexus that exists between poverty and crime points to its origin in social inequalities. Religion and caste based division of the society in every State have given rise to crimes against linguistic minorities. Both are the products of darkness – the ray of light and hope was creation of the CLM organization, which was expected to address this issue by protecting their right to primary education in their mother tongue. It is only when this light reaches the lowest strata of humanity would we be able to realize the words of wisdom : “Asato ma sadgamaya tamso ma jyotirgamay”. (c)

The need for Action and Vision for Future (i) Primary education in mother tongue at least among the poorest of the poor has to be provided for capacity building among the poor particularly in remote hills and forest areas in the rural sector and slum areas in the urban sector. (ii) The CLM organization must overcome its inbuilt democratic deficit and finalize the long pending proposals of the State Level Advisory Committees in all 28 States and 7 Union Territories to make sure that people’s participation in this process would motivate the State Govts. to fulfill their constitutional obligations and result in the empowerment of the linguistic minorities. (iii) To facilitate the working of state level committees, the CLM organization will have to undergo structural metamorphosis (for the creation of vacancies in respect of which, including framing of recruitment rules and budget provisions, have since long been submitted to the nodal Ministry of Minority Affairs, Govt. of India). (iv) It would be imperative to ensure participation of designated members representing most parliamentary constituencies so that the progress of District-level administration in the implementation of the Safeguards for linguistic minorities is properly monitored and recorded

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(v)

through the proceedings of State-level advisory committees. The critical need for empowerment of these lowest strata by bridging the resource and technology gap between the immigrant linguistic minority and dominant populace will also have to be addressed as an additional responsibility of the CLM organization. (This will have to be the location specific exercise)

(d)

Immediate need to constitute State Level Committees The state level Committees consisting of representatives of District level NGOs / voluntary organizations / civil society / Mahila groups nominated by public leaders are expected to meet once in two months at their place of the state capital and twice in a year at their respective regional office of the CLM organization, to ensure two way traffic of information, ideas, problems and solutions.

(e)

Need to expand CLM organization to meet the expectations of 16% population out of ONE BILLION PEOPLE. In the coming Golden Jubilee year, the CLM organization needs to restructure itself to deal with the population of the country that has crossed 1 billion mark. The zonal offices controlling seven regional offices (as per proposal in the diagram) are proposed to be located at Delhi, Allahabad and Mumbai each headed by Deputy CLM. There could thus be three Deputy CLMs and seven ACLMs reporting to Additional CLM who ought to be appointed at the HQ presided over by the CLM. It is further expected that for 28 States and 7 Union Territories, if the state level advisory committees meet once in two months at the state capital, there would be at least 210 (35 x 6) such meetings per year. The volume of work generated at the said number of meetings, if taken together with the meetings at regional level would require expanded management infrastructure as has been proposed. When we take into account 22 languages in the 8th Schedule and hundreds of non-scheduled languages as also scheduled tribe languages, the critically needed logistics to monitor the progress and cost incurred on it would greatly justify the outcomes that have been envisaged. We would naturally be looking at the steps which have been taken in other countries for the promotion of the minority languages since we believe that this is a universal need which is catered to by various states in their own way. This time we are looking at the general scene in Europe. We have referred in an earlier Report to the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. This is

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a treaty adopted in 1992 under the auspices of the Council of Europe. It applies to languages traditionally used by the nationals of the State which significantly differ from the majority or official language (thus excluding what the state party wishes to consider as mere local dialects of the official or majority language) and which either have a territorial basis (and are therefore traditionally spoken by populations of regions or areas within the State) or are used by linguistic minorities within the State as a whole (thereby including such languages as Yiddish and Romani, which are used over a wide geographic area). 1.11

This definition shows that the number of the speakers of a language is not a criterion. It will not be necessary to give the details of the languages which are described as minority languages in various countries as it is a very long list. We would only illustrate by citing the languages from two countries lying at the two extremities of Europe. These are Spain and Austria. In Spain the languages are Basque (co-official in the Basque Country and Navarre); Catalan (co-official in the Balearic Islands, Catalonia and Valencia); and Galician (co-official in Galicia). It will be seen that the languages are given the status of co-official languages in their own areas much as is done for Bengali in the Cachar valley districts in Assam or for Nepali in Darjeeling area of West Bengal.

1.12

On the other hand, in Austria the following languages are recognized viz. Croatian of Burgenland, Slovene (in Carinthia and Styria), Hungarian (in Burgenland and Vienna), Czech (in Vienna), Slovak (in Vienna), and Romani (in Burgenland). It is to be noted that some of the recognized languages are for a city only.

1.13

Some of the unusual languages included in the list are Yezidi (Armenia), Kurdish (Armenia), Sami (Norway and Sweden), Rusyn (Serbia, Croatia, Slovakia), Meankieli (Sweden), North Frisian and Saterland Frisian (Germany), Cornish (UK), Irish Gaelic and Scottish Gaelic (UK). Some of these languages are spoken by a very small number of people.

1.14

It is not merely the Governments which are acting to protect and promote these languages. Many independent organizations are also engaged in this business. Apart from schools, and publishing houses, there are newspapers to specially report on the events of interest to minority language speakers. Thus we have a newspaper 'Euro Lang News'. In one of their issue, the following news items (just to give illustrations) are found.

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"Pal Csaky, President of the Party of the Hungarian Coalition in Slovakia, intends to submit a written question to Prime Minister Robert Fico to question whether the domestic and international legal provisions ensuring the linguistic rights of Slovakian minorities can be considered valid and effective" (Slovakia). "The Microsoft Vista operating system is to be translated to Scottish Gaelic. Speakers and learners of the language are being urged to assist the project by contributing views to a consultation by national Gaelic development agency Bord na Gàidhlig on the terminology used" (Scotland). "Mr. Attila Markó, head of the Office for Interethnic Relations of Romania, has announced that a new Institute for Minority Research will be launched in Kolozsvár -Cluj at the end of 2007" (Romania). "As English speakers enjoy the new Harry Potter book and film, language activists in Scotland have renewed calls to have the popular series of books translated into Gaelic" (Scotland) .

1.15

These are some of the news which gives examples of the work being done for the minority languages. Unfortunately for us, there is not such awareness about the minority languages in our country. While there is tolerance, positive action for a minority language is not prevalent to the extent which is needed. Our programme, which we have referred to earlier, is a step in that direction. It is recognized that there will be some groups which would be agitated if there is a positive movement in favour of the minority language. We are confident that the democratic spirit which pervades our nation will help to make these groups understand that other languages are as important as theirs.

1.16

We have spoken about the positive action. Two news items will explain this. First one is about a language in Italy. "A new research project, “Il Friuli: una etnia sui passi di Pier Paolo Pasolini” (Friuli: an ethnic group in the footsteps of Pierpaolo Pasolini) has been dedicated to the Italian poet, the region of Friuli and the Friulan language. The initiative, supported by the Ethno-Linguistic Minority Committee (the Italian Ministry for Cultural Activities), represents an important study on the relationship between literature and linguistic minorities. The work, a reflection on the influence of the Friulan ethnicity on the literary production of Pasolini, offers a linguistic, philological and anthropological reading of the territory of Friuli, where language is still a strong identity marker. Through the use of Friulan, Pasolini strengthened the dialogue between the territory and its people, and between the people and their own language." "The Cornish Language Partnership 'MAGA', part of Konsel Kernow / Cornwall Council, has launched a new Cornish website. The website is intended to be a

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portal for Cornish and to develop as the language develops, linking out to all other Cornish language sites and other sites of interest to Cornish speakers. Apart from information about Cornish and current news, the site also gives Cornish speakers and learners the capability to develop online resources, games and interactive material as time goes on. Music clips are available now and tasters for Cornish language films will follow shortly."

1.17

In India also, we can now find the website for some linguistic minorities such as www.kamat.com for Konkani, www.boloji.com for Tulu and www.lepcha.com for Lepcha.

1.18

Before we leave this topic of the use of the minority languages in Europe, we would like to speak about a minor language Sami of Lapland, an area covering parts of four countries viz. Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Their number is not large - 25,000 in Norway, 17,000 in Sweden, 4,000 in Finland and 2,000 in Russia - 48,000 in all, or maybe 50,000 considering Sami speakers outside this territory. Sami is one of the Uralic languages. In the 17th century the kingdoms of Norway and Sweden tried to assimilate the Sami people by converting them to Christianity and by forbidding their language. The creation of national borders and division of the Nordic territories between Sweden, Norway and Finland obliged the Sami to adapt to the culture of the country they had to live in. But Sami has survived.

1.19

The Nordic Sami Council was established in 1956 among the Sami in Finland, Norway and Sweden. Although there still remain questions about the Sami's rights for land and natural resources, nowadays the Sami people enjoy official recognition and Sami language and culture courses are taught at several Scandinavian universities. Adopted in April 1988, Article 110a of the Norwegian Constitution states: "It is the responsibility of the authorities of the State to create conditions enabling the Sami people to preserve and develop its language, culture and way of life." The Sami Language Act went into effect in the 1990s. Sami is an official language of the municipalities of Kautokeino, Karasjok, Kåfjord, Nesseby, Sør-Varanger and Tana. In Finland, the Sami language act of 1991 granted Sami people the right to use the Sami languages for all government services. The Sami language act of 2003 made Sami an official language in Enontekiö, Inari, Sodankylä and Utsjoki municipalities. On April 1, 2002 Sami became one of five recognized minority languages in Sweden. It can be used in dealing with public authorities in the municipalities of Arjeplog, Gällivare, Jokkmokk and Kiruna.

1.20

For education we are describing only the situation in Sweden. Instruction is given in both Swedish and Sami, and the Sami language is taught every 17

year of the child's schooling. Sami can also be studied as a mother tongue language (previously called home language) in municipal nine-year compulsory school and upper-secondary school. A special board, the Sami School Board, is responsible for the operation of the Sami schools. The Sami schools are funded by the State. In accordance with the Sami Parliament Act, the Sami Parliament works to promote a living and dynamic Sami culture which involves initiating activities and proposing actions that promote Sami culture. The Sami Parliament is also responsible for allotting government grants and funding for Sami cultural events and activities as well as for dealing with Sami language issues. Every municipality is responsible for ensuring that all children one year or older who have not begun school (at 7 years) are offered pre-school, family nurseries, or drop-in nurseries. The Sami School Board has stated that its own pre-schools will have a Sami curriculum and that the goal will be to preserve and strengthen the Sami language, culture, identity, traditions, and values. The Sami School Board has produced Sami textbooks and teaching aids but has not been able to keep up with demand, especially considering the fact that instruction in Sami is being offered at more schools. Sami language teaching aids and textbooks produced in Norway and Finland are also used in Sami instruction in Sweden. Sami as a subject in upper-secondary school has been taught as a home language course since 1978. Undergraduate and graduate programmes in Sami Studies are available at Umeå University. 1.21

All this stands out in contrast with the treatment that is accorded to the so called tribal languages in India. Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra refuse to even acknowledge that there is a language called Bhili though it has about 50 lakhs speakers. Same is true of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, a Union Territory (where Bhili speakers are in majority - 55 %). In West Bengal, Santhali fares a little better because it is being taught in some schools but the precise information is not available because it is clubbed under the heading 'Other Languages'. The number of Santhali speakers is also around 50 lakhs, of whom about 22 lakhs (2001 census computed figures) are in West Bengal only. The 'other languages' had a total of 9,686 students from class 6 to 10 giving an average of 2000 per class. It can be imagined where we stand in relation to the concern for the minor languages.

1.22

One of the reasons cited is the lack of financial resources. We have had the occasion to comment upon it but it will bear repetition. Is it really that costly to introduce the minority languages? So far as the major languages are concerned, the textbooks and other material can be available from the states where these are principal languages. It is sad but true that most of the states are now paranoid about their identity. They tend to include

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some material in their textbooks which will annoy the neighbours. But this is a small fraction and is certainly not present in the technical subjects like Mathematics and Science. Social History is the most likely to give offence but the books can be subjected to scrutiny and such pieces blanked out. Such an effort should not entail a lot of expenditure. Not that it really matters because in these days of computer network, you can hardly keep persons away from such material if they choose to go for it. 1.23

The best example for exchange of textbooks is in the case of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. While a Ganjam and Gajapati district of Orissa has a sizeable Telugu speaking community, Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh has Oriya speaking persons. The two State Governments agreed in the sixties to exchange the books in Oriya and Telugu and this arrangement continues even now.

1.24

Coming to the minor languages, it can be conceded that some extra expenditure will be incurred. But is it that heavy a burden that it can not be afforded by the State Government? First of all, it would be noted that these books are substitute for the books in the principal languages and not in addition to them. The reduction of the expenditure on the books in principal languages should be offset against the expenditure on the books in minor languages. Secondly we are talking of the use of the minor languages at a lower level. Most of them will be for the elementary stage though some of the advanced languages will continue into the secondary stage also. Most of the State Governments are committed to the supply of the textbooks to the students at elementary stage of education free of cost. If that does not mean a burden, why should a few books in the minor languages be a stumbling block in fulfilling the constitutional obligations.

1.25

We have found a lot of enthusiasm in the speakers of the minor languages in our interaction with them. In a conference held in Delhi for their representatives, almost everyone was willing to work voluntarily and without any remuneration if this is what is needed. These voluntary efforts are spread all over. In Manipur, the local Literature Committees are preparing the textbooks in minor languages. This is done without any expectation of financial returns. All that is needed is the assurance that these books will be put to use. In Delhi, the teachers in some Urdu schools visited offered to translate the books into Urdu without any remuneration. In Tamil Nadu, the Sourashtra people have prepared a book and submitted it to Director of Education for approval long back. These offers can be made use of. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has got provisions for preparing the teaching and learning material in minor languages. There is no dearth of resources. What is needed is a will to

19

work and use these languages. A small help will go a long way to fulfill the aspirations of the speakers of these minor languages. 1.26

We have spoken of voluntary effort and we have spoken of the advisory committees earlier also. The commitment is there to see but it is necessary to canalize it. It is felt that the organization of the Commissioner Linguistic Minorities is the most suitable for it. It has a long experience in this field. It has been interacting with the representatives of the minority languages for a very long time. But if it is really to provide support for these voluntary efforts, it must be suitably strengthened. To start a movement is not very difficult given the support of these groups. To sustain it will require hard work, coordination amongst the groups and interaction with the State authorities. It is not the place to describe in detail the requirements. Proposals have already been prepared and submitted and consultations are going on at a higher level for their approval. It is hoped that the plans for expansion and restructuring become a reality in the fiftieth year of this office i.e. 2007 - 08. The appointment of consultative committees can be achieved only after organization’s expansion. This would be the fittest way to celebrate the completion of the fifty years of this office. (a)

Strengthening the CLM organization Most of the above proposals have been pending with the Govt. of India for several months now. The delay caused in dealing with these issues results in atrocities on linguistic minorities in a number of regions apart from Belgaum notably Assam and North-East, J&K, Punjab & Haryana, Kutch in Gujarat, forests of Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc. The rate of drop outs of children of linguistic minorities in UP and Bihar has crossed 70% in most primary schools. If we want to prevent these children from straying into anti-social activities or if we want to upgrade their skill levels and information quotient and want to inculcate right attitudes in them the CLM organization has to be given its rightful place and strengthened to play its constitutional role. The most critical part is to bring into existence the machinery that can handle the responsibility of investigation i.e. summoning of those facing allegations and recording the evidence.

(b)

To enable the CLM organization to function as per the provisions of the Constitution, the Members of Parliament ought to cooperate and provide the information with respect to the progress of implementation of the Constitutional Safeguards by their State Govts. in their respective constituencies. The MPs have been

20

requested to fill in the Questionnaire that were sent to them and provide their inputs to the CLM organization so that the 45th Annual Report of CLM organization (i.e. the next report) would bring out the action-oriented report of proposals to Her Excellency the President of India. (c)

The Policy issues before National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) in respect of our statutory imperatives of teaching in the mother tongue of the pupil and positive outcomes that we can aim to achieve from the multi-lingual class-rooms of pupils with different mother tongues have exhaustively been dealt within the form of proposals in the 43rd report to the President of India.

(d)

The three language formula with modification to include the fourth language with relevant proviso as was proposed by my predecessor in 43rd report on the grounds of home language advantage, are some of the issues which are pending at various levels in the Govt. and have not been repeated here. There is however no escaping the reality that the three or four language formula that is supported by similar recommendations from UNESCO is the only viable way to make uniform primary and secondary school level education to all linguistic groups throughout the length and breadth of our country.

(e)

Our next 50 years are going to require the coming generations to deal with the global market places and global languages. In the information age, the knowledge and communication abilities are going to be the only tools for any exchange or interaction. Our languages have blessed us with a huge reservoir of information and skill enhancing techniques, besides character and attitude building abilities. To unlock this reservoir and rekindle the spirit of our oneness and summon all our ancient wisdom we must act and that action must be taken now.

(f)

With these remarks, we will go on to discuss the situation in the various states but it has to be pointed out that many of them will be missing in the analysis. They have not been able to submit their statistical and other data which will enable us to describe the current position. The earlier data can be seen in the Reports for the relevant year. This does not, truly speaking, discourage us but only goads us to redouble our efforts to sensitize the officers and the Government of these states towards the commitment to the linguistic minorities. The need to set up the monitoring committees is only underlined by such lapses.

21

1.27

We would be naturally looking forward to support from all the ministries of Central Government to work in their respective fields keeping the above requirements of the linguistic minorities in mind. It would be our endeavour to formulate the line of action by the various ministries in consultation with them.

22

2. Arunachal Pradesh 2.1

Historically, Arunachal Pradesh had been under the influence of the Ahom Kings and the modern period begins with the start of British rule after the treaty of Yandaboo. Before 1962, the area was popularly know as the North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and was constitutionally a part of Assam. In 1972 it was constituted as a Union Territory and renamed Arunachal Pradesh. On 20 February 1987, it became the 24th State of the Indian Union. The state has a literacy rate of 54.2% though the density of the population is lower in comparison to other states. Major economic activity in the state is growing cash crops and the economy is gradually being modernized with the introduction of industrial activity. The state has appointed the Director, Social Welfare as Nodal Officer for the linguistic minorities.

2.2

The state of Arunachal Pradesh is gifted with a rich variety of different dialects and even in one district many languages may be found. The linguistic minorities have to be taught in their mother tongue. We have earlier pointed out in our 43rd report that such an experiment may not face the constraint of lack of script as Devanagari Assamese or any other script can be used. This interaction could have lead to development of a commonly accepted lingua franca. It is better to make start in some languages if not in all.

2.3

The Government of Arunachal Pradesh agrees that there are several dialects and languages and that there is no script. The statistics about languages spoken are said to be not available though the state government could have referred to the Census Commissioner’s Report, which would have given them the necessary information. It appears that the matter has been dealt with at a lower level and mind has not been applied at the higher echelons of administration - political and civil service. Perhaps a contribution at the higher level may solve the problem. The CLM has already suggested the approach to overcome obstacles by removal of the democratic deficit through appointing state advisory committee (SAC), the proposal for which has yet to get financial approval of the Central Government.

23

3. Assam 3.1

Assam has a rich heritage of culture and civilization. The state abounds in natural richness and human wealth. Being the homeland of myriad races of men-Austric, Mongolian, Dravidian and Aryan that came to dwell in her hills and valleys at different times since remote antiquity-Assam has developed an enviable composite culture. Assam known as Pragjyotisha or the place of eastern astronomy and also as Kamrupa, is an agricultural state. Agriculture accounts for the livelihood of about four-fifths of the state’s population and holds the key to the state’s economic growth. Assam is also fairly rich in petroleum and natural gas, limestone and coal. Exploration, exploitation and refining of petroleum form the bulk of the industries in the state. Apart from this, Assam has always enjoyed the highest reputation for the excellence of her arts and crafts associated with her cottage industries.

3.2

A detailed reply has been received for of the questionnaire for the 44th Report. The language wise break up for the state is as follows:-

Hkk"kk

Languages

çfr'krrk

Persons

Percentage

1,29,58,088

57.81

CkaXkk Bengali yh

48,56,532

21.67

cksMks Bodo

11,84,569

5.28

fgUnh

Hindi

10,35,474

4.62

fef'kax

Mishing

3,81,562

1.70

djch

Karbi

3,55,032

1.58

fneklk

Dimasa

84,654

0.38

vlfe;k

Assamese

O;fä

This linguistic profile for the state is based on the figures for the census 1991 as the figures for the census 2001 are not yet available. 3.3

District wise break up of the speakers of minority language has been informed by the Government of Assam. Thus Karimganj, Hailakandi and

24

Cachar district have respectively 84.8; 82.3 and 75.6 % of population which speaks Bengali. Other districts where their population is more than 15 % are Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Nagaon, Goalpara, Kokrajhar, Dhubri and N. C. Hills. Other prominent minority language is Bodo which is spoken by 39.5 % people in Kokrajhar; and 16.5 % in Bongaigaon. Mishing is spoken by 26.0 % people in Dhemaji; Karbi by 44 % in Karbi Anglong; Dimasa by 32 % in N. C. Hills. 3.4

Besides Assamese, Bengali and Bodo are additional official languages in their respective areas of concentration. Though the petitions are received in the minority languages and also replied to in these languages, this does not apply to the minor languages such as Mishing, Karbi and Dimasa, which requires immediate attention.

3.5

Assamese, Bengali and Bodo are the media of examination for recruitment. The question papers are not in the minority languages but the replies can be written in them. It is still not clear if knowledge of Assamese is a prerequisite in areas like Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj where Bengali is the dominant language and is used for all official purposes. The policy decided by the state should be such that is able to reduce language conflicts involving linguistic minorities.

3.6

Director of Elementary Education is the recognizing authority for all lower primary and upper primary linguistic minority schools. Board of Secondary Education is the prescribed authority for secondary schools. 357 institutes have been so recognized. Seven applications - five for Bengali and two for Bodo are pending. The break up of recognized schools is as follows:-

ek/;e caXkkyh cksMks ef.kiqjh fgUnh usikyh 3.7

Medium

mPp çkFkfed 'kkyk;sa Upper Primary schools 333

Bengali Bodo

12

Manipuri

2

Hindi

8

Nepali

2

Director of Elementary Education is the sanctioning Authority for grants for LP schools and UP schools while Government sanction grants for the secondary schools. The number of schools receiving grants is as follows:-

25

Language

Hkk"kk

mPp çkF kfe d

Primary 309

Upper Primary 70

Bodo

87

33

Hindi

12

Bengali

caxkyh cksMks fgUnh ef.kiqjh xkjks ;ksx 3.8

çkFkfed

Manipuri

4

1

Garo

6

5

Total

457

148

The number of schools, students and teachers for different languages are as follows:-

'kkyk;sa @Schools Hkk"

Language

k k Bengali

caXk

Provincialized Govt. Aided

jkT;d`r

Nk=/ Students

v/;kid / Teachers

Provincialized Govt.

jkT; lgk;r k çkIr

jkT;d`r

jkT;

Provinciali zed

jkT;d`r

Govt. Aided

jkT; lgk;rk çkIr

3,813

309

6,05,850

13,705

7,625

618

185

4

23,360

180

370

8

1,713

87

1,99,790

4,015

3,426

174

38

6

6,012

300

76

12

k y h ef.ki

Manipuri

q j h cksM Bodo k s Xkkj Garo k

26

s gekj Hmar usiky Nepali h fgUn Hindi h vlfe;k Assamese & Bodo @ cksM ks 3.9

5

1,290

10

5

1,850

10

78

12 39

610

156

1,756

Language

rkbZ fef'kax jkHkk djch usikyh fc".kqfç;k ef.kiqjh

'kkyk;sa / Schools 200

Tai Mising

230

Rabha

70

Karbi

25

Nepali

100

Bishnupriya Manipuri

52

Each of these schools has one teacher. But the number of students is not informed to CLM. In addition, it has been decided to teach Deuri language also but the number of schools has not yet been finalized.

3.11. In the Upper Primary level the figures for medium are as follows:-

27

24 78

In addition the following languages are taught as subjects -

Hkk"kk

3.10

5,390

Hkk"k k

Language

Schools/ 'kkyk;sa

jkT;d`r

Students/ Nk=

jkT; jkT;d`r lgk;rk çkIr

jkT; lgk ;rk çkI r

Teachers/ v/;kid

jkT;d`r

jkT; lgk;r k izkIr

Provincialized

caxky h ef.kiqj h cksM k s xkjks gekj usiky h fgUnh vlfe;k rFkk cksM ks

Govt. Provincia- Govt. Aided Provincialized Govt. Aided lized Aided 994 70 84,685 5,250 5,982 350

Bengali Manipuri

68

1

6,950

75

408

5

Bodo

215

33

27,585

2,970

1,075

165

Garo

6

5

1,490

450

30

25

Hmar

2

775

10

Nepali

3

685

18

Hindi

14

8,365

84

Assamese & Bodo

37

3,151

185

3.12

Hindi is being taught as the third language in 6,730 schools to 11,99,515 students through 7,330 teachers.

3.13

The Information about the secondary schools has not been given.

3.14

Under the Three Language Formula, the languages taught, other than Hindi and English are as follows :

Hkk"kk

Language

d{kk 5 caxkyh

Bengali

Nk= / Students d{kk 6 d{kk 7

Class 5 44,968

28

Class 6 29,978

Class 7 14,989

cksMks ef.kiqjh gekj xkjks fefJr ek/; e usikyh

Bodo

15,278

10,185

5,092

3,513

2,342

1,170

Hmar

388

258

129

Garo

970

647

323

1,576

1,050

525

343

228

114

Manipuri

Mixed Medium

Nepali

3.15

Information about class 9 and 10 is not given. It is only remarked that at the secondary level, English, Hindi and mother tongue are taught.

3.16

The CLM is aware that posts of teachers have been created for the minority languages both for the medium and for the subject. The number of posts is given as follows:-

Hkk"kk

Language

ek/;e @ Medium inksa dh la[;k

fo"k;@ Subject Hkk"kk Language inksa dh la[;k

Number of Posts

Number of Posts

mPp çkFkfed ;ksx Total çk Lower Primary Fk fe d

çkFkfed Lower Primary

Upper Prim ary

caxkyh ef.kiqjh cksMks Xkkjks gekj usikyh fgUnh

Bengali Manipuri

5,982

7,626 13,608

402

370

772

Bodo

1,075

4,346

5,421

Garo

30

76

106

Hmar

10

10

20

Nepali

18

10

28

Hindi

84

156

240

29

rkbZ jkHkk fef'kax usikyh djch

Tai

200

Rabha

70

Mising

230

Nepali

100

Karbi

25

3.17

There are five institutes for training the teachers in Bengali, two DIETs at Cachar and Karimganj; and three BTC at Udarband, Kaliganj and Hailakhandi. For Bodo there is one institute viz. BTC Kokrajhar.

3.18

Advance registers are being maintained in the schools for recording choice of the language by the students. 230 schools in seven districts are maintaining these registers. Information about other districts is not available.

3.19

We have been informed by the Govt. of Assam that the SEBA/ SCERT and Assam State Textbook Production and Publication Corporation are the agencies for publication and procurement of textbooks in respect of the medium of instruction.

3.20

Regarding the monitoring of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities, Government has constituted the Assam Linguistic Minorities Development Board. Information about its composition, terms of reference and the exact role are not informed to the CLM. It is also not specified if and when this Board has met and what is the nature of deliberations. At the State level, the Department of Welfare of Minorities and Development Department is in charge of the affairs regarding the linguistic minorities. At the district level, District Inspector of Schools in respect of the Secondary Education and District Elementary Education Officer in respect of the elementary education are in charge.

3.21

As regards the publicity of the facilities for the linguistic minorities, the Govt. of Assam informs that the Government provides teachers and free textbooks as funds permit and mechanism for publicity is inbuilt in the schools themselves. There are standing orders to the effect that there is provision for facilities of learning minority language, the condition being that in the lower primary school, there is an enrolment of 40 students in the school or ten students in a class for learning that language. These orders are circulated from time to time amongst the officers concerned. Commissioner, however, feels that the public advertisement of these provisions will help the linguistic minorities to know about the steps being taken by the State Government about their welfare.

3.22

As regards the grievances and complaints, Director of Elementary Education receives the complaints. He solves them as per the authority vested in him. Other points are submitted to the Government with necessary comments for such action as may be decided. As regards the obstacles, the State Government faces, it has been informed that minority language medium secondary schools remain a major problem

30

due to paucity of funds. The CLM would like to add that people’s participation in policy framing via involvement of the proposed SAC mechanism is expected to lead to relief in all the major problem areas. 3.23

A very significant fact brought to the notice of the CLM is the lack of administrative response which prevails at the lower level of governance with which minority groups are in frequent contacts in districts and sub divisions. The grievances need to be resolved in view of the fact that a lack of basic or infrastructural facilities in primary sector is deeply affecting the life of people. The common man in Assam is mostly worried about two things viz, instability all around and the core competence failure of the government machinery causing a feeling of insecurity among the linguistic minorities.

3.24

The tea laboures accounting for nearly 70 racial factions including Manjhi, Tanti, Orriya, Santhali, Bhojuri, Mallah, Telanga, Bhumij, Sanatan, Dhanwar, Nagbanshi, Khandaits, Ghatowar along with Christians constitute most of the linguistic minority apart from laboures in tea, oil and petrol producing areas. Complexity of states surrounding Assam i.e.; Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya & Tripura are immense. The CLM feels that to preserve tranquility and peace in north east and to handle grievances of linguistic minorities an extension of the CLM office under an Assistant Commissioner is essential in the form of a regional office at Guwahati.

31

4. Andhra Pradesh 4.1

The earliest mention of the ‘Andhra’ is said to be in Aitereya Brahmana (2000 BC). Regular history of Andhra begins with 236 BC. During the following centuries, Satvahanas, Sakas, Ikshvakus, Eastern Chalukyas, Kakatiyas ruled the Andhras. Other dynasties that ruled over the area in succession were the kingdoms of Vijayanagar, Qutub Shahi and the Nizams. Gradually, from the 17th century onwards, the British constituted the single province of Madras. After Independence, Telugu speaking areas were separated from the composite Madras Presidency and a new State of Andhra Came into being on the 1st October 1953. With the passing of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, there was a merger of Hyderabad State and Andhra State, and consequently Andhra Pradesh came into being on the 1st November 1956. Andhra Pradesh is bound on the north by Orissa and Chhattisgarh, on the west by Maharashtra and Karnataka, on the south by Tamil Nadu and on the east by the Bay of Bengal with a coastline of 974 kms. Agriculture is the main occupation of about 62 percent of the people in Andhra Pradesh. Rice is a major food crop and staple food of the State contributing about 77 per cent of the food grain production. Andhra Pradesh is also having rich heritage sites like Golconda, and Nagarjunakonda.

4.2

The population of Andhra Pradesh as per the census 2001 is 7,62,10,007 whereas 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 –

32

Hkk"k Language k

O;fä

çfr'krrk

Persons

Percentage

rsyqxq Telugu

6,41,94,236

84.77

mnwZ Urdu

63,30,822

8.36

fgUnh Hindi

20,97,653

2.77

Tamil

2,55,721

1.13

rfey

More than 60 % of the people speak a minority language. The following are the areas where Urdu is said to be spoken by more than 15 % of the population-Nellore Urban; Chitoor Urban; Kadappa Urban; Rayachot (Distt. Kadappa); Kadia (Distt. Anantpur); Kurnool Urban, Atmakur, Nandyal (Distt. Kurnool); Hyderabad Urban; Mehboobnagar; Ranga Reddy; Zeeharabad (Distt. Medak); Bodhan (Distt Nizamabad); Adilabad Mandal; Warangal Urban and Guntur Urban. Other languages are not mentioned but there are pockets with sizeable number of speakers of Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, and Oriya. 4.3

4.4

4.5

The official language of the State is Telugu but Urdu has also been recognized as the additional official language for thirteen districts for the specified purposes. These districts are – Nellore, Chittoor, Cuddapah, Anantpur, Kurnool, Hyderabad, Mehboob Nagar, Rangareddy, Medak, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Warangal and Guntoor. Urdu can be used for recruitment to certain services such as ministerial and judicial ministerial services. It can also be used for publication of rules, regulations and notifications. If there are a minimum of ten students in a class or 45 students in a school desiring to do so, instruction should be through the medium of Urdu for those students. Other languages also need consideration by the state governments though the Govt. had not mentioned any, in the information made available to the CLM. The state govt. has assured that the representations are received in the minority languages and replied to also in those languages. Presumably this would also include languages other than Urdu too. Department of Minority Welfare is in charge of the linguistic minorities affairs. It is reported that a state level committee has been set up to

33

look after the implementation of the safeguards but no details about the composition of the committee or its meetings, if any, have been given. Minority Welfare Commission has been set up in the State and it also takes care of the affairs regarding the linguistic minorities. But no further details about its activities in this regard have been given. These should be intimated. 4.6

The CLM has been informed that publicity for the safeguards is given through the public notifications. It is also agreed that the district and tahsil offices can be directed to exhibit the safeguards on their hoardings. The state government has not specified whether this has been achieved.

4.7

So far as the recognition of the linguistic minority institutions is concerned, it is the view of the government of Andhra Pradesh that for primary and upper primary schools, District Education Officer and for the high schools, Regional Joint Director is the recognizing authority. The number of recognized institutes is given language wise. No application is pending. It is to be noted that the figures for this year are much lower than what were intimated last year. The comparative chart is as follows:

Hkk"kk

Language

2004 - 05

2005 - 06

mnwZ

Urdu

3316

2522

mfM+;k

Oriya

188

96

rfey

Tamil

97

85

fgUnh

Hindi

80

69

ejkBh

Marathi

52

35

xqtjkrh

Gujarati

2

2

CakXkkyh

Bengali

14

Nil

The figures given by the state government indicate that a lot of progress is needed in this area. 4.8

One explanation can be that information is not received from many of the districts. But if this is not true, then this is a serious situation and the state

34

government is urged to enquire into this and intimate the results of the enquiry. 4.9

Government is the authority for approving the institutes for grant in aid but grants have not been sanctioned for any institute during the year.

4.10 The educational facilities for the students at primary level are provided in the minority languages. The details are as follows –

Hkk"kk

Language

'kkyk

Nk=

v/;kid

Schools

Students

Teachers

2,522 2,57,074

7,466

mnwZ

Urdu

mfM+;k

Oriya

96

7,304

103

rfey

Tamil

85

8,025

255

déM+

Kannada

62

10,276

172

fgUnh

Hindi

69

14,356

396

ejkBh

Marathi

35

3,294

105

xqtjkrh

Gujarati

2

486

12

4.11 There was a question about schools where the minority languages are taught as a subject though they are not the media of instruction. A 'NIL' reply has been given though last year such schools were listed. The statistics were as follows -

Hkk"kk

Language

'kkyk;sa Schools

mnwZ

Urdu

déM+

Nk=

v/;kid

Students

Teachers

1,074

89,128

2,262

Kannada

25

2,595

53

ejkBh

Marathi

9

646

24

mfM+;k

Oriya

6

252

10

35

fgUnh

1

Hindi

524

6

4.12 The CLM urges the state government to review the position and explain the variation. 4.13

At the upper primary level, where the minority language is the medium, information is as follows –

Hkk"kk

2004 - 05

Language

'kkyk

Nk=

2005 - 06

v?;kid

'kkyk

Nk=

v?;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers

mnwZ

Urdu

399

69,844

1,985

332

57,911

1,589

mfM+;k

Oriya

54

4,844

122

26

3,271

73

déM+

Kannada

19

4,429

77

17

4,091

53

ejkBh

Marathi

14

2,554

60

14

2,034

62

fgUnh

Hindi

7

1,470

35

9

1,625

51

rfey

Tamil

6

1,636

47

6

944

25

caxkyh

Bengali

3

241

10

4.14 The variation is significant and needs looking into. Even in Hindi, where the number of institutes has gone up, the number of students has come down. In Tamil, the number remains the same for institutes but the number of students has gone down. Bengali has been given up, it appears. 4.15

For teaching of minority language as a subject, the data for the last year is as follows –

Hkk"kk

Language

'kkyk

Nk=

v?;kid

Schools

Students

Teachers

36

4.16

fgUnh

Hindi

mnwZ

Urdu

déM+ ejkBh

1,149 1,30,742

4,548

246

34,554

946

Kannada

4

798

14

Marathi

4

783

14

For the secondary level of education, the information about the medium is as follows-

Hkk"kk

2004 - 05

Language

'kkyk

Nk=

2005 - 06

v?;kid

'kkyk

Nk=

v?;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers

mnwZ

Urdu

365

73,887

2,607

441

77,928

2,705

fgUnh

Hindi

35

7,070

237

39

7,430

280

mfM+;k

Oriya

25

4,435

67

28

4,927

70

rfey

Tamil

15

4,161

96

25

6,159

164

déM+

Kannada

12

2095

80

12

2,661

82

ejkBh

Marathi

12

2,221

60

10

2,076

57

4.17

The number of students has gone up for all languages other than Marathi where the number of schools has also come down.

4.18 For teaching of minority language as a subject at this stage, the numbers are as follow –

Hkk"kk

2004 - 05

Language

'kkyk

Nk=

2005 - 06

v?;kid

'kkyk

Nk=

v?;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers

fgUnh

Hindi

916 1,90,687

5,097

12

1,318

60

mnwZ

Urdu

278

1,324

204

31,289

1,151

32,117

37

déM+

Kannada

2

800

18

7

1,562

51

ejkBh

Marathi

1

319

7

8

1,318

60

rfey

Tamil

17

330

92

4.19 The discrepancy between the figures for the two years is apparent. The reasons for it are not apparent. May be there is an explanation. The CLM would like to be made aware of that. 4.20 Another issue was about the teaching of the languages under the Three Language Formula. The number of the students informed to the CLM is as follows –

Hkk"kk mnwZ fgUnh mfM+;k rfey déM+ ejkBh

Language

d{kk 6

d{kk 7

d{kk 8 d{kk 9

d{kk

Urdu

Class 6 25,313

Class 7 21,596

Class 8 17,676

Class 9 15,114

10 Class 10 12,680

Hindi

1,865

1,792

1,753

1,586

1,358

Oriya

1,405

1,438

1,262

1,197

960

Tamil

1,527

1,448

1,291

1,159

1,004

Kannada

1,050

794

677

522

425

770

573

591

500

437

Marathi

It appears that this information is for the linguistic minority schools only. 4.21 One of the problems normally is that the teachers are not earmarked for the languages or media as such. This results in filling up the vacancies arising due to retirement of the teachers by those who do not know that language or can not teach through that language. The CLM has been informed that during the year 2005-06 no posts were created, however, the overall position is yet to be clarified. This should be noted by the state government for compliance. 4.22 For training of Urdu teachers DIETs with an annual intake of 650 persons are reported. For Tamil there is an institute with an annual intake of 50 persons. Other languages are not mentioned. 4.23 About the maintenance of the Advance Registers for registering the students desirous of taking the minority languages as media/ subjects, it is said that information is not readily available. Regarding textbooks,

38

they are prepared and published by Government Textbooks Board. It is said that the books are supplied in time. 4.24 There was a query by the CLM about the Academies set up for minority languages. 'NIL' reply has been given by the state whereas it is known to us that Urdu and Hindi Academies exist. It has not been stated whether this year they have been abolished. In fact they have been mentioned in the reply to our query which was actually about non Academy institutes (such as NGOs) and individuals. However, there also it is stated that no grants have been released this year. Such discrepancies should be avoided in future for the sake of clarity of information. 4.25 Assistant Commissioner Linguistic Minorities visited Srikakulam district. He met the district officers and the representatives of the linguistic minorities (Oriya and Urdu) and ascertained the position on the ground. There is a shortage of the teachers and proposals to create another 156 posts are pending with the Government for a long time. The need to post qualified teachers was stressed in many of the areas that Assistant Commissioner visited. There were also demands to upgrade the existing primary or upper primary schools to junior college level so that the children can continue their studies. 4.26 Other grievances included unfairness of adopting 1:40 ratio for providing the teachers in view of the backwardness of the area; non availability of textbooks and study material in Oriya; question papers not being in Oriya; the dilapidated condition of the school buildings, non posting of Oriya knowing officers in the area; assistance to libraries for providing Oriya newspapers and magazines; and lack of Hindi teachers in the Oriya medium schools. 4.27 Assistant Commissioner also visited Vishakhapatnam, East Godavari, Vijayawada (Krishna) and Hyderabad districts. In Vishakhapatnam district, Urdu is spoken in some pockets and there is one Urdu High School and three high schools with Urdu sections. In East Godavari district, there are 26 primary Urdu schools and 7 high schools with Urdu sections. There are 167 Urdu schools in Krishna district, including 25 schools (15 primary, 6 with parallel sections, 3 upper primary and one high school) under the Vijayawada Corporation. There are also aided schools for Tamil and Gujarati speaking students. In Krishna district, it was said that textbooks are available but not always in sufficient number.

39

In Urdu book on science, the lesson on AIDS was not included. Some posts of teachers were also said to be vacant. 4.28

In one Tamil school, Telugu is started from class 6 in a composite course. This should be approved by the Government and should be applied to other linguistic minorities’ schools. Some posts were found to be vacant in this school also. There are 208 students in this school (Thiruvalluvar Tamil Patasalai, Purannandapet). In a Gujarati school (L. P. C. T. Gujarati Vidyalaya) there are 502 students, 285 in elementary and 217 in secondary sections. Three posts are vacant including that of Head Master. Four appointments made by management are to be regularised. In Hyderabad, Marathi school was visited which had 432 students from class 1 to 10. There were 12 teachers against the sanctioned strength of 19. In a Government Urdu medium school, 107 pupils were there and six teachers. In a Kannada school, 80 students were studying from class 1 to 7. There were 7 teachers against a sanctioned strength of 12.

4.29

In general, the shortage of teachers is the main problem. There is also a need to update and publish the pamphlets detailing the concessions available to the linguistic minorities. It is also noted that the Advance Registers are not maintained in many schools to ascertain the linguistic preference of the students. The CLM feels that sincere efforts by state government, motivating right sort of people through the proposed SAC mechanism and involving nodal and district level officer will improve the situation in future.

40

5. Orissa 5.1

Reply to the questionnaire for the Forty Fourth Report has not been received from Orissa till 15th November 2007, even after a lot of efforts. We are unable, on this account, to give information about the updated position about the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities.

5.2

The State Government is urged to send reply of the questionnaire in time. However; for the benefit of users of this document we are presenting a summary of the Linguistic Minorities scenario in the State of Orissa; which has been prepared on the basis of the information sent by the State Government and already incorporated in our 43rd Report.

5.3

The Government of Orissa has informed the CLM that the minorities and Backward Classes Department is the Nodal Department and Director (OBC) cum Additional Secretary, Minorities and Backward Classes Department is the Nodal Officer.

5.4

Districts where the percentage of the linguistic minorities is more than 15% are Phulbani – Kui; Mayurbhanj – Santhali; Sundargarh – Hindi. If

41

the identification is done on the basis of sub district level, there are expected to be many more languages and many more areas. Not much is being done for these languages. There is no practice of posting officers, to these places, who know local languages. The important rules are not published in the minority languages. There is no agency for translation. 5.5

District Education Officer is the authority for recognition of the minority institutions. 29 High schools and 166 madarasas have been recognised as minority institutions. 30 applications are said to be pending. Language wise information has not been provided. No grants had been sanctioned during the year 2004 – 05. It may be remarked that the madarasas are not necessarily the linguistic minority schools. At the lower level, it appears that the number of linguistic minority schools is as follows – Telugu - 202 Linguistic Minority Schools, 168 Bilingual Schools; Bengali – 11 and 4; Urdu – 119 and 5. Hindi and Gujarati have respectively 16 and 3 minority schools.

5.6

Another statement gives the number of primary/upper primary schools and the students and teachers therein. The information is as follows – Telugu – 165 schools, 18, 976 students, 465 teachers; Hindi – 64/15792/ 128; Bengali – 24/960/48; Urdu – 64/4416/128; Assamese – 3/300/6; Kannada – 5/201/10; Punjabi – 3/133/6; Sanskrit – 3/100/6; Gujarati – 6/ 300/12; Nepali – 3/78/6; and Sindhi – 1/22/2. The information appears to be for teaching of the language as a subject. Also, there is a variance between the figures of the schools here and elsewhere.

5.7

In giving the number of teachers, the number of only the Urdu teachers is given and the number is 50 for the medium and 30 for the subject. For training, once again, only Urdu is mentioned. There is one institution and the annual intake is 50.

5.8

There in no agency for preparation of the textbooks in minority languages. It is said that private publishers supply the books. The Government does not concern itself with whether the books are available or not. Such unconcern is not warranted. Similarly when it comes to Academies, only Orissa State Board of Madarasas as is mentioned which requires a little more elaboration by the state government.

5.9

There is no machinery to monitor. It is said that there are no complaints though attention was drawn in the 42nd report towards a plethora of complaints at various levels. The information supplied does not create any confidence that the State Government is serious about the implementation of the safeguards for the linguistic minorities. Some suggestions were given to the State for consideration but apart from saying that these have

42

been sent to the respective departments, nothing is done. These suggestions include identification of areas where the proportion of the linguistic minorities is more than 15%; use of Kui for imparting instructions in Phulbani district; and other languages in their respective areas; preparation of question papers in minority languages; supply of free textbooks in minority languages; information about studies in the tribal languages by Tribal Research Institute. The State is also requested to look into various complaints sent to it by the Commissioner and by other complainants especially shortage of teachers, non posting of minority language teachers in the respective schools, training of teachers and absence of appropriate books. 5.10

We have already advanced suggestions based on observation of the CLM during his visits to the state for compliance. The State Government may go through the suggestions carefully and take the desired action.

6. Uttar Pradesh 6.1

Uttar Pradesh is blessed with the multi-hued Indian Culture coexisting since times immemorial. Bestowed with a variety of geographical land and much cultural diversity, Uttar Pradesh, has been the area of activity of historical heroes like- Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Mahavira, Ashoka, Harsha, Akbar, Rani Laxmi Bai, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bhadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi. Uttar Pradesh has been the most dominant state in Indian politics and culture since independence, producing five of India’s prime ministers. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in the country accounting for 16.16 percent of the country’s population. It is also one of the large states in area covering 7.3 percent of the country’s geographical area, encompassing 2,40,928 square kilometers and comprising of 70 districts and 97,942 inhabited villages. The density of population in the state is 690 person per square kilometers as against 324 for the country. After Buddha, in successive centuries Ayodhya, Prayag, Varanasi, Mathura and several other cities played significant role in the making of religious and cultural history of India. Hindi and Urdu literature flourished further and work of translation of Sanskrit book into Persian gained momentum. Ramananda and his famous disciple Kabir, Tulsidas, Surdas, Keshavdas, Bhushan, Malik Mohammad Jayasi, Raskhan, Matiram, Ghananand, Bihari, 43

and Giridhar Kaviraj were some of the great poets, who contributed to the growth and development of Hindi and other languages and produced literature of extraordinary beauty. Uttar Pradesh is also well known for the significant contribution of the people of the state in National Freedom Movement. In the first war of Indian independence in 1857 A.D., the people of Uttar Pradesh Played an exemplary role. In the historic struggle Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi, Begum Hazrat Mahal of Avadh, Bakht Khan, Nana Saheb, Maulvi Ahmadullah Shah, Raja Beni Madhav Singh, Azimullah Khan and a number of other patriots became martyrs to the cause of freedom. U.P. was an active centre of Indian National Congress. It was in Allahabad that in 1920, in a conference Mahatma Gandhi proposed his programme of non-violent resistance to achieve independence. At the level of higher education and technical education Uttar Pradesh has 16 general universities, 3 technical universities, one Indian Institute of Technology (Kanpur), one Indian Institute of Management (Lucknow), one Indian Institute of Information Technology (Allahabad) and a large number of polytechnics, engineering institutes and industrial training institutes. This provides the state with firm basis for higher education to its youth. 6.2

Reply to the questionnaire for the 44th Report has been received by the CLM from the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Strangely it does not list the only minority language of significance in Uttar Pradesh i.e. Urdu. The percentage of Urdu speakers was 9.15 % in 1991 census. There are no districts where Urdu is mother tongue of more than 60 % of the population. Previously, we have listed districts of Saharanpur, Bijnor, Meerut, Moradabad, Rampur, Bareilly and Muzzafarnagar as such districts where Urdu speakers were more than 15% of the population of the districts. There are some other districts where some areas have more than 15 % of population with minority language such as Ghaziabad, Pilibhit, Gonda, Barabanki, Siddhartha Nagar, Deoria, Lucknow, Kanpur Urban, Budayun, Bulandshahar, Bharaich and Shahjahanpur. In the 1991 census there were 275 municipal areas/nagar panchayats/notified area committees where their population is more than 15 % of the population of that area. But all this information is given a short shift. As a sequel to this the information about publication of the Acts and rules in Urdu, has been given in negative. But it is admitted by the state that Urdu is the second official language of the State. Details of these, however, have been given in our previous Report.

6.3

The CLM enquired if the knowledge of Regional Language was compulsory for recruitment to the services. The Regional Language, in the context of Uttar Pradesh was meant to be Hindi (Just as Tamil is Regional Language for Tamil Nadu). But the term regional language is misunderstood and it is

44

said that its knowledge is not necessary but that of Hindi is. And the standard expected is of class 12. As a matter of fact the dominant language i.e. the language spoken by the majority is the regional language for any particular area. The state govt. is urged to apply the concept in their future replies to the CLM. The non Hindi knowing people are thus supposedly appears to have been excluded from competing for the Services. 6.4

For declaration of the private organizations as minority institutions, it is said that Minority Welfare and Waqf Department is the recognizing authority. The number of the recognized institutions is said to be 376. But it is said that they are minority institutes and not linguistic minority institutes. The question is how many of them are religious minority and how many linguistic minorities. Education Department is the Authority for sanctioning of grants-in-aid to such institutions but again no figures are provided. This point needs further elaboration from the state government.

6.5

Regarding the education facilities at the primary level for Urdu, it is said that there are 422 schools where Urdu is the medium of instruction. There are 422 teachers and about 8,800 students. Another 6,974 schools are mentioned where Urdu is not the medium but it is taught as a subject. The number of teachers is 3,900 and that of students about 3.88 lakhs. It appears that the detailed information about the number of students is not gathered and hence, approximate figures are given. The number of Urdu teachers is, prima facie, short of requirements. It is pertinent to mention that on an earlier occasion during the visit of Dy. CLM, it was found that there were no Urdu schools in Varanasi, Mau and Azamgarh and no statistics were available even at district level. CLM has not been aware of any improvement in the situation. The finding was reported in our 43rd report and may now be attended to by the state government.

6.6

6.7

At the upper primary level, there are said to be 38 schools, 58 teachers and about 900 students with Urdu as medium. For Urdu as a subject, the figures are about 2,000 schools, about 68,000 students and about 1,500 teachers. Here also the number of teachers needs to be properly maintained. There is no mention of such schools at secondary level. Further, the information about Three Language Formula merely repeats the figures of about 68,000 students for Urdu. It is also mentioned that all students are taught Sanskrit from class 3 to 8 in Parishadiya schools. Just what is meant by 'Parishadiya' is not clear and may be elaborated by the state government. About training of teachers, no specific information is given though it is reported that annual intake of Urdu teachers in DIETs is 8,000 per annum.

45

6.8

Academies have been set up for Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Another organization for Urdu viz. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmad Memorial Committee (FAAM) is also working. Sindhi Academy has a budget of Rs. 25 lakhs for the year 2005 - 06. Punjabi Academy has a budget of Rs. 1.05 lakhs; Urdu Academy of Rs. 90.88 lakhs. FAAM has a budget of Rs. 13.55 lakhs. The details of their activities and achievements during the year are not given.

6.9

It is mentioned that 42 persons have been given old age pension of Rs. 1.80 Lakhs. Presumably this is for the old writers. Another Rs. 1.50 lakhs has been given as assistance to four persons for the publication of their manuscripts.

6.10 The Minority Welfare and Waqf Department has replied the questionnaire to the CLM but it is also said that the Language Department is looking after this work. Secretary, Minority Welfare and Waqf Department is described as the Nodal Officer. There is no committee for the monitoring of the implementation of the safeguards. At the district level, the work is not assigned to any officer but, generally, all work relating to minorities is looked after by the District Minority Welfare Officer. 6.11 For the publicity of the safeguards etc. there is a magazine ‘Naya Daur’ of the Information and Publicity Department. There is no compilation of standing orders for the information of the officers or the public. 6.12 There is no officer designated to receive the complaints at the state or the district level but generally the complaints are received at district level by District Minority Welfare Officer. Obviously the question regarding the problems faced is brushed aside by saying that it is not relevant. 6.13 The reply has not been satisfactorily provided the position prevalent in the state because some crucial questions have not been given due attention but there is marked improvement in the information given. It is hoped that exact number regarding the institutions which have been recognized, the number of students and teachers will be given. The details about the work done by the Academies should also be supplied. It is also necessary to make some arrangements to see that the facilities given by the Government are actually available at the field level. 6.14 In the previous Report, it was stated that it is not clear that, despite the Official Language Act, the publication of Acts etc. is being done in Urdu. In reply to this, it is said that the position is clear in the Government Order dated 6.10.2005. But what is in this order has not been intimated. It is hoped that information will be given about this aspect.

46

6.15 It has been intimated that the budget for Hindustani Academy, Allahabad was Rupees ten Lakhs each in the year 2003 - 04 and year 2004 - 05. But what this institution is doing for the promotion of the languages has still not been intimated. However, for FAAM, it has been intimated that it gives financial assistance to the Urdu writers from the entire country for publication of their outstanding creations.

7. Uttarakhand 7.1

Uttarakhand finds mention in the ancient Hindu scriptures as the land of Gods (Dev Bhoomi) because of its various holy places and abundant shrines. The present State of Uttarakhand was earlier a part of United Province of Agra and Awadh which came into existence in 1902. In 1950, United Province was renamed as Uttar Pradesh. Uttarakhand carved out of Uttar Pradesh became the 27th state of India on November 9th, 2000. It is located in the foothills of the Himalayas. About 90% of population depends on Agriculture. The state is rich in mineral deposits like limestone, rock phosphate, dolomite, magnetite, copper, graphite, soap, stone, gypsum etc.

7.2

The linguistic profile of the state has been shown as follows:-

Hkk"kk fgUnh mnwZ iatkch caxkyh

Language

O;fä

çfr'krrk

Hindi

Persons 74,88,995

Percentage 88.22

Urdu

4,89,815

5.77

Punjabi

2,23,260

2.63

Bengali

1,23,090

1.45

47

vU;

Others

1,63,837

1.93

7.3

The state government has informed the CLM that there are no districts or areas where the population of the linguistic minorities is more than sixty percent or fifteen percent. We are of the opinion that the concept of linguistic minorities is not properly understood by the state. Linguistic minorities have not been defined anywhere, however the inference of all the debates on the subject is that the speakers of any language other than that spoken by the majority i.e. the dominant or regional language constitutes the linguistic minority. When properly understood, it would be easier for the state to define policy guide lines. An example of this misunderstanding is also evident in the reply the CLM has got in response to the query as to which is the agency for recognition of the linguistic minorities’ institutions

7.4

The state informs that "As of now, no such authority exists since the State of Uttarakhand does not recognize any linguistic minority." It has been clarified earlier, and it will bear repetition, that there is no provision for such recognition either in the Constitution or in any statute. Any one, whose mother tongue is not the language which is the principal language of the state and which happens to be Hindi for Uttarakhand, will belong to linguistic minorities. The Constitution permits the administration of educational institutions by the minorities and further enjoins that they shall not be discriminated against. The Government has to recognize such linguistic minorities and apply the safeguards which have been listed in the Constitution or which have been traditionally agreed to by the Chief Ministers of the earlier era.

7.5

There is a reference to the madrasas as which are 153 in number and are said to be imparting instruction in Urdu. Madrasas are religious institutions and do not fall within the scope of the questionnaire. There is an exception when the madrasas are covered under the 'Modernization of Madrasas' scheme of the Central Government and teachers are appointed to teach Mathematics, Science, English etc. But this does not appear to be case here.

7.6

Department of Social Welfare is in charge of the work relating to the linguistic minorities and its Principal Secretary is said to be the Nodal Officer. But the reply to the questionnaire is sent by the Secretary of the State Minority Commission. CLM advises that the reply should have been sent by the Nodal Officer so that it could have been drafted in the proper perspective. It is hoped that the matter will be reexamined by the authorities and action taken to know and to apply the safeguards.

48

8. Karnataka 8.1

8.2

Karnataka was ruled by mighty kings in the past. Pulkesin II was a great emperor who even defeated Harshavardhana of Kanauj. This dynasty created fine monuments at Badami, Aihole and Pattadakal both structural and rockcut. Aihole has been one of the cradles of temple architecture in the country. The Rastrakutas of Malkhed who succeeded them levied tribute on the rulers of Kanauj successively in the so-called ‘Age of Imperial Kanauj’. After Independence the new united Mysore state was created in 1956 and was renamed Karnataka in 1973. Karnataka is situated to the south of Goa and Maharashtra, to the west of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and to the north of Kerala. Agriculture and allied activities account for nearly 65 per cent of the work force in the State. The sate is famous for its sandal soap and sandal wood oil. The state is also rich in mineral resources. Karnataka, the silicon state, is the most favored destination for IT industry. Karnataka accounts for a third of the total software exports form India. The language profile of Karnataka is as follows –

Hkk"k

Language

O;fä @

çfr'krrk @

Persons

Percentage

49

k mnw Z

Urdu

64,63,127

9.72

rsyq xq

Telugu

37,51,098

8.34

rfey

Tamil

17,18,129

3.82

ejkB h

Marathi

17,76,599

3.75

8.3

The information about Tulu, Hindi, Malayalam, Konkani, Lamani and Kodagu has not been given whereas there is significant presence of speakers of these languages in the State.

8.4

Gulbarga and Bidar are said to be districts where the population of the linguistic minorities is sixteen percent for Urdu. Belgaum is a similar district for Marathi. Actually the areas should be worked out on the basis of the tahsils so that compact areas with significant population of the linguistic minorities can be identified. It is felt that there will be many such areas for example South Kanara district for Konkani and Tulu; Coorg for Kodagu and so on. These areas would also need attention. Unfortunately there is no declaration of such areas and due publicity about the safeguards which the linguistic minorities are entitled to. The State Government is urged to do so and put up the hoardings informing the public about the safeguards in the tahsil offices of the identified areas.

8.5

CLM is informed that no representations or applications are received in minority languages. This needs checking up. It is also necessary that the revenue papers in minorities’ languages should be made available in the tahsils where the linguistic minorities are actually in majority. There can be bilingual records for the use of the officers and ministerial staff. Documents in these languages should also be accepted in the revenue, civil and other courts. We are strongly in support of peoples participation in conflict resolution and CLM has proposed the introduction of State Advisory Committee (SAC) to make the working of the CLM more democratic.

8.6

The proposal is still under consideration of the central government. The State Government is the authority for the recognition of the linguistic minorities’ institutions. The number of institutes recognized as on June 30, 2006 were 406 for Urdu; 214 for Marathi; 118 for Tamil; 60 for Telugu; 8 50

for Malayalam; and 7 for Gujarati. (Total is 813). Tulu, Konkani and Kodagu are not mentioned. It appears that there are no such institutions. The Government is requested to give necessary help and guidance for such institutions. The sanctioning authority for the grants is the State Government. But no new schools are being sanctioned grants due to economy measures. How many of the institutions are being given grants at present is not indicated by the Government of Karnataka. 8.7

The information about the schools, students and teachers in the elementary education (including both primary and upper primary stages) where minority language is the medium is as follows –

Hkk"kk mnwZ ejkBh rfey Rskyqxq

Language

2004 - 05

'kkyk Urdu Marathi Tamil

Telugu

Nk=

2005 - 06

v?;kid 'kkyk

Nk=

v?;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers 4,097 5,74,152 17,227 2,326 5,63,135 17,779 1008 1,68,920

6,463

432 1,60,842

5,726

175

29,264

669

44

28,665

654

92

13,747

416

58

12,092

334

8.8

From a perusal of the reply of the state, the CLM observes that there is not much change in the number of students (though it is remarkable that number of students in all these languages has come down when compared with the figure for the last year, even if marginally), the number of schools has gone down almost by 44 % for Urdu; 60 % for Marathi; 75 % for Tamil and 40 % for Telugu. It appears that this is on account of the upper primary schools not being included in the figures. A separate table gives the number of the upper primary schools but the figures of the students and the teachers are repeated. Thus there are 1798 upper primary schools for Urdu, 561 for Marathi; 120 for Tamil and 48 for Telugu. Taken together all the number of schools for elementary education (primary plus upper primary) for Urdu will be 4124, which is almost the same as for the last year. For Marathi the figures are 963; for Tamil 164; and for Telugu 106.

8.9

The CLM has information from the state government regarding schools etc. where minority languages are taught as a subject. In the secondary stage of education, the information is as follows:-

Hkk"kk

Language

2004 – 05

'kkyk

Nk=

2005 - 06

v/;kid 'kkyk

Nk=

v/;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers

51

mnwZ ejkBh rsyqxq rfey

Urdu

297

64,768

2,182

325

68,204

2,275

Marathi

181

35,026

1,575

184

37,637

1,668

Telugu

16

2,206

101

15

1,728

103

Tamil

2

302

19

16

1,963

106

We observe that the number of schools, students and teachers are marginally up except that in Tamil, the number of schools has gone up substantially. 8.10

The information provided to the CLM about the third language in the Three Language Formula (English and regional language are the other two). Information is as follows –

Hkk"kk mnwZ rfey rsyqxq ejkBh

Language

d{kk d{kk

Urdu

6 7 8 9 10 class 6 class 7 Class 8 class 9 class 10 67173 62090 24102 23438 18664

d{kk

d{kk

d{kk

Tamil

3806

2591

717

621

625

Telugu

1453

1411

603

588

537

Marathi

22342

23457

12944

12730

11963

We observe that the number of students is slightly down from those of the previous year. It is noted that the information has been limited to the four languages which are considered to be the minority languages. The information about Malayalam and Hindi has been left out. It is noted that Tulu, Konkani and Kodagu are not mentioned as medium or the subject taught at any stage of education.

8.11

As regards the number of posts of teachers sanctioned the CLM is informed it to be 2,275 for Urdu; 1,668 for Marathi, 106 for Tamil and 103 for Telugu. Last year the number of teachers sanctioned for different languages are as follows –

Hkk"kk mnwZ ejkBh rfey

Language

çkjfEHkd ek/;fed Elementary Secondary 16,538 807

Urdu Marathi

4,948

Tamil

654

52

161

rsyqxq ey;kye

Telugu

296

Malayalam

68

12

8.12

We observe that this information keeps on varying from year to year. It needs looking into and correct figures be intimated not only to this office but to the educational authorities so that the replacement of the teachers of a particular language by a teacher of the same language is ensured.

8.13

Regarding the training of the teachers, it is informed that Government is providing in service training to teachers. The number of institutes and seats for various languages is not given.

8.14

Regarding the maintenance of the Advance Registers, it is mentioned that 2863 primary, 2330 upper primary and 540 secondary schools are maintaining the Registers.

8.15

It is informed that SCERT is in charge of preparation of textbooks for the minority language. These are supplied on time to the students.

8.16

No information has been given to CLM about the Academies, about their budget, about their activities and their achievements. It is just stated that enough funds are being provided for infrastructure, building etc. for development of the minority languages. In the previous years the details, sometimes at least, were given about Urdu, Konkani, Tulu and Kodagu Academies. The State Government is urged to give this information.

8.17

Regarding the machinery for monitoring the implementation of the safeguards, no information has been given. Director Linguistic Minorities is said to be the Nodal Officer and it is known that there is a separate wing in the Social Welfare department for the Minority Welfare. There is no committee at any level to monitor the implementation. It is stated that the Minority Commission is given the task of monitoring but there are no details about their reports, if any. There is no attempt to give publicity to the schemes and concessions for the linguistic minorities. The CLM is of the view that a lot of effort from the government and people is still required for peaceful implementation of safeguards to the linguistic minorities. The steps suggested by the various members of parliament are relevant in case of Karnataka i.e. formation of SAC in all states/union territories in India and involvement of nodal and education officers. The proposal could not be implemented during the Golden Jubilee Year of the CLM organization due to lack of manpower and funds for which CLM organization has already forwarded a proposal to the central government.

53

9. Kerala 9.1

Kerala is situated in the south-west of the Indian peninsula. After Independence India amalgamated small states together. The erstwhile Travancore and Cochin states of Kerala were integrated to form Travancore-Cochin State on 1 July 1949. However, Malabar remained under the Madras province. Under the States Re-organisation Act 1956, Travancore-Cochin state and Malabar were united to form the States of Kerala on the 1st November 1956. Kerala is bound by high Western Ghats on the east and the Arabian Sea on the west. 44 rivers (41 west flowing and 3 east flowing) cut across Kerala with their innumerable tributaries and branches. The backwaters form an attractive and economically valuable feature of Kerala. It is a major producer of coconut, rubber, pepper, cardamom, ginger, cocoa, cashew, betel-nut, coffee and tea. It is 54

also known for its rich cultural activities and performing arts like Mohini Aattam and Kalaripayattu. 9.2

Kerala has sent a reply to the questionnaire for the 44th Report. The reply for the questionnaire pertaining to the 43rd Report was not received in time for inclusion in the 43rd Report. The information pertaining to the previous year and this year is being processed in the present Report.

9.3

General Administrative Department is in charge of the affairs regarding the linguistic minorities. Additional Secretary, GAD is the Nodal Officer.

9.4

The population of the state is 318.4 lakhs as per 2001 census. In the absence of linguistic details for this census, the figures for the 1991 census have been given. Tamil speakers form 2.12 % of the population and Kannada speakers 0.26 %. Konkani speakers are 0.22 % of the population. Tulu has not been mentioned though Tulu speakers number 1,11,670. Furthermore they are concentrated in Kasargod district. Their strength should also be taken note of and appropriate action be taken for promotion of Tulu language also.

9.5

The areas where the population of the linguistic minorities is significant are declared. There are no areas where they are more than 60 %. Peerumedu, Devikulam and Udumbanchola tahsils in Idduki district; Chittoor and Palakkad in Palakkad district, Kasargod tahsil in Kasargod district are so declared; the last named for Kannada and others for Tamil. Thiruvanantpuram is also mentioned for Tamil. Konkani is spoken in Ernakulam but there is no area of concentration as such.

9.6

Gist of the important rules, regulations etc. are published in minority languages. During year 2004 - 05, four ordnances and rules were published in Tamil and three in Kannada. The numbers of Acts so published are 34 for Tamil and 22 for Kannada. District Collector is in charge of such translations. Representations are received in the minority languages and are answered in the same language. Minority languages are also allowed as media for recruitment examinations. Knowledge of Malayalam is not a pre requisite for recruitment.

9.7

As regards machinery for monitoring, there is a committee headed by the Chief Minister. The date of meeting of this committee in 2004 - 05 or 2005 - 06 is not indicated. At the district level also, the committees exist for monitoring. Palakkad committee met on 30.4.2003; and 31.12. 2004 while Kasargod committee met on 26.7.2004. The Idukki committee did not meet in 2004 or 2005. A regular meeting will be helpful in solving the local district level problems.

55

9.8

As regards publicity for the safeguards, linguistic minority cells functioning in the district headquarters of Thiruvanantpuram, Idukki, Palakkad and Kasargod are constituted for providing the information.

9.9

Mechanism also exists for receiving the complaints. Some of the complaints received relate to the out of turn promotion of teachers in linguistic minority areas. Actually, the fact is pointed out that some non Kannadigas teachers pass an examination in Kannada and get out of turn promotion and are posted in Kannada language areas. Their only interest is to get out of turn promotions as soon as possible and they are neither interested nor competent to teach in Kannada medium. The rules should be changed so that only those who are capable of teaching in Kannada medium are given such out of turn promotions and posted in the schools where Kannada is the medium of instruction.

9.10

It is reported that the linguistic minority institutions are given special treatment for recognition. Based on the recommendations of Director of Public Instruction, Government issues orders permitting an agency to start a school. The orders are issued by District Education Officer in accordance with Kerala Education Rules.156 institutions have been recognized as linguistic minorities though the language wise breakup is not available. Last year, 76 Kannada and 68 Tamil schools were mentioned. It is expected that remaining two are Konkani schools. No applications for linguistic minorities’ schools are pending. 89 schools for Tamil and Kannada are receiving grants from the Government.

9.11

For the primary education, the media of instruction are Malayalam, Tamil and Kannada. The number of students for whom the facility of teaching in the minority language is given is eight for a class, an improvement on the number of ten, which was recommended by the Chief Ministers’ conference. The number of institutions, students and teachers for the year 2004 - 05 which were included in the last Report are repeated here for ready reference. These are as follows –

Hkk"kk rfey déM+ dksad.kh

Language

'kkyk

Tamil

Schools Students Teachers 279 10,302 369

Nk=

v/;kid

Kannada

90

18,144

867

Konkani

2

357

2

56

xqtjkrh

Gujarati

1

32

1

9.12

The information for the year 2005 - 06 is considerably different from the above information. The number of Tamil schools is mentioned as 62, The number of students 5,424 and of teachers, 141. Similarly for Kannada, the figures are 89; 10,547; and 257 respectively.

9.13

Tamil is also said to be taught in five schools as a subject, where there are 150 students and 5 teachers. It appears that Konkani and Gujarati are taught only as subjects in their respective schools. It is noted that Tulu is not there.

9.14

At the upper primary level, the number of schools for year 2005 - 06 is given as follows:-

Hkk"kk

Language

'kkyk

rfey déM+

Tamil

Schools Students Teachers 23 1,314 43

Kannada

Nk=

31

v/;kid

6,593

189

9.15

Tamil is also taught as a subject in another two schools where the number of students is 40 and there are two teachers.

9.16

At the secondary education level the figure for the minority language schools etc. for the two years are as follows:-

Hkk"kk rfey déM+

Language

2004 - 05

'kkyk Tamil Kannada

Nk=

2005 - 06

v/;kid

'kkyk

Nk=

v/;kid

Schools Students Teachers Schools Students Teachers 14 9,616 325 9 2,108 95 24

5,607

223

14

5,897

172

9.17.

The variation is significant. It should be checked. It is noted that Tamil is taught as a subject in another 14 schools, the number of students and teachers being 6,146 and 116 respectively.

9.18

Advance Registers are maintained in 328 primary and 36 secondary schools.

9.19

The CLM is aware that in the Three Language Formula, the languages taught are as under (figures are for the year 2004 - 05) -

57

Hkk"kk

laLd`r vjch mnwZ rfey déM+

Language

d{kk 6

d{kk

d{kk

d{kk

d{kk

;ksx

Class 6

7 Class 7

8 Class 8

9 Class 9

2,04,313

Sanskrit

66,005

64,988

25,809

24,415

10 Class 10 23,096

Arabic

80,797

88,735

86,312

87,989

75,655

4,19,488

Urdu

26,339

27,310

14,802

14,645

11,833

94,929

Tamil

3,585

3,466

3,137

2,847

2,388

15,418

Kannada

5,040

5,406

4,513

4,210

3,362

22,531

Total

9.20

The number of teachers for these languages is Sanskrit - 3,613; Arabic 7,710; Urdu - 1,593; Tamil - 152; and Kannada - 101.

9.21

For the year 2005 - 06, the figures are given only for Tamil and Kannada. These are:

Hkk"kk

rfey déM+ 9.22

Language

d{kk 6

d{kk

d{kk

d{kk

d{kk

Class 6

7 Class 7

8 Class 8

9 Class 9

Tamil

2,104

2,055

8,911

2,012

10 Class 10 1,688

Kannada

2,020

2,393

2,113

2,081

1,703

;ksx Total 16,770 10,310

Once again the variation is to be noted and explained.

9.23

The posts for teachers are earmarked for the minority languages. Tamil has 60 posts earmarked and Kannada 618. If we add up the number of teachers mentioned for various levels, the total is much more than these.

9.24

The Tamil teachers are trained at T. T. I.s Chalai, Thiruvanantpuram; T. T. I.s at Munnar, Idduki; Kumili, Idduki; and Chittoor, Palakkad. For Kannada teachers, seats are reserved in Kasargod DIET.

9.25

Textbooks are said to be available in suitable number and at the right time. State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) is in charge of preparation and publication of the textbooks.

9.26

There is no Academy for the development of languages nor is there a scheme to give assistance to any organization for development of languages. Some of the suggestions made in the previous Reports have been acted upon. But it is noted that positive action expected to be taken has not yet materialized. Some are brushed aside. For example, it was 58

found that some schools, where even the teachers were not well versed in Malayalam were having Malayalam encyclopedia. The teachers said that they were obliged to buy it. The reply of the state Government says that DD(E) Kasargod said that no one was forced to buy the encyclopedia. But its very presence in the school shows that we can suggest that "Malayalam encyclopedia or magazines should not have been supplied to Kannada medium schools where they can not be put to use".

10. Gujarat 10.1

Gujarat is the land of Lord Krishna who according to mythology left Mathura and settled at Dwaraka on the west coast of Saurashtra. In later period Gujarat prospered under Chalukyas and in spite of several invasions, the state maintained its well being and prosperity. Before Independence, the present territories of Gujarat used to be in two partsthe British and the Princely territories. With the Reorganisation of the state, the Union of the State of Saurashtra and Union Territory of Kachchh 59

alongwith the former British Gujarat became a part of the bilingual state of Bombay. The present state of Gujarat came into being on 1 May, 1960. Gujarat is the main producer of tobacco, cotton and groundnut in the country and provides inputs for important industries like textiles, petrochemicals and engineering. Gujarat is among the leading industrialized states in the country. The state has approximately 74,031 km of roads. Gujarat has 40 ports of which Kandla is a major one. 10.2

The linguistic profile of Gujarat (as per 1991 census) is as follows–

Hkk"kk xqtjkrh fgUnh flU/kh ejkBh mnwZ

Language Gujarati

O;fä

çfr'krrk

Persons Percentage 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

10.3

Sindhi figures are outdated and inaccurate. Same is the case with kachchis, their number is same as Sindhis. Kachchi and Sindhi are similar languages speakers of which are scattered all over Gujarat. Kachchi are mainly in Kachchh district and their language should also be treated as minority language.

10.4

Department of Social Justice and Empowerment is the department looking after the work relating to the linguistic minorities. Joint Secretary of the department is the Nodal Officer. There is no mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the safeguards. There is no specific officer at the district level for looking after the implementation of the safeguards. There is no machinery for receiving complaints or for looking into grievances. There is no reference to the knowledge of the officers about the local languages before they are posted there. The question of receiving or entertaining representations in minority languages does not arise. It is part of the safeguards that there should be appropriate monitoring arrangements at the state and the district level. A committee headed by Chief Secretary was recommended. In Kerala, West Bengal and Assam there are committees headed by the Chief Minister.

10.5

As for the declaration of the areas where there is more than 15% of the population belonging to the linguistic minorities, no areas are mentioned whereas there should have been Sindhi and Kachchhi in parts of Kutch

60

district. In previous years, Dangs, Surat, Ahmedabad were mentioned as the areas where minority language speakers were more than 15 %. 10.6

Gujarati is the official language as well as the language for the competitive examinations for recruitment to the services.

10.7

Commissioner, Mid-day Meals and Schools in Education Department is the recognizing authority for the institutions belonging to the linguistic minorities. 108 institutes have been so recognized as on June 30, 2006. No applications are reported to be pending. For sanctioning grants in aid to the institutions, Education Department is responsible. However, no schools have been sanctioned grants in aid during the year 2004 - 06.

10.8

Information about the number of schools, students or the teachers for the year 2005 – 06 has been received. The information about the elementary level (class 1 to 7), of schools, students and teachers is as follows –

Hkk"kk

Language

'kkyk

rsyqxq ey;kye mfM+;k mnwZ rfey ejkBh flU/kh fgUnh

Telugu

Schools Students Teachers 8 3,080 69

Nk=

v/;kid

Malayalam

1

120

5

Oriya

5

1,995

16

Urdu

170

53,409

1,200

Tamil

20

4,845

144

Marathi

98

47,265

946

Sindhi

36

5,060

230

Hindi

277

91,810

2,001

10.9

The CLM is informed that Hindi is taught as a subject, but is not a medium, in 37,822 schools where 27,85,925 students are taught by 37,822 teachers. Presumably this is part of the Three Language Formula and is not related to minority languages as such. The idea was to find out if minority languages like Sindhi and Marathi are taught as a subject to students even when the medium is English or Gujarati. Hindi is, of course a minority language and, to that extent, the information given is in order. 10.10 For secondary level, it is informed to CLM that Hindi is the medium in 47 schools; Marathi in eight; Sindhi in eleven; Urdu in nine; Telugu in one; and Tamil in one school. The number of the students and the teachers is not given. It is also informed that these minority languages are not taught as a subject in any school. This needs checking up.

61

10.11 Under the Three Language Formula, 'NIL' information is given but this does not square with the information given last year which is reproduced here to provide the contrast.

i