New Delhi (IPA Service): India is embracing linguistic diversity in its government job tests. Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh revealed in New Delhi that the government job test will now be conducted in 15 Indian languages. This new initiative aims to ensure that the “language barrier does not let any youth miss the job opportunity.”
Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s leadership over the past nine years has emphasized promoting regional Indian languages in addition to the official language, Hindi. This fresh step is expected to boost local participation, emphasizing the importance of regional languages in India.
The papers for these tests won’t just be in Hindi and English. They’ll include 13 other regional languages like Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri, and Konkani. With this, countless students will have the chance to attempt their exams in their mother tongue, potentially increasing their success rate.
Dr Jitendra Singh acknowledged the consistent requests from various states to include languages besides English and Hindi in the Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams. Addressing this, the government set up an expert group to review the scheme and syllabus of these exams.
While the idea of introducing more languages began with the “Official Language Rules, 1976”, most of the progress has been seen in the past five to six years. For instance, exams like the JEE, NEET, and UGC are already being conducted in 12 Indian languages. There’s also a push for introducing higher education materials in various languages. In a recent development, Madhya Pradesh initiated the first MBBS course in Hindi, followed by Uttarakhand.
Dr Jitendra Singh emphasized the need to adopt common terminology from languages like English instead of trying to create new translations. Using the terms “nucleus” and “amoeba” as they are can save time and resources.
Furthermore, the new National Education Policy (NEP) stresses the importance of the students’ mother tongue in primary, technical, and medical education. “Medical education has commenced in Hindi and soon Engineering studies will also begin in Hindi,” Dr Jitendra Singh remarked. He also shared that translations of engineering books are underway in eight languages, which will pave the way for students across the country to study technical and medical subjects in their mother tongue.
In a nod to modernizing India’s legal framework, the government is replacing the older colonial-era criminal justice system. They’re introducing new bills like the “Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita Bill, 2023”, “Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita Bill, 2023”, and the “Bharatiya Sakshya Bill, 2023” to take the place of laws from the 1800s.
Lastly, Dr Jitendra Singh mentioned that over 56 training modules from Mission Karmayogi Prarambh under the Integrated Government Online Training (iGOT) portal are now available in Hindi. He expressed hope that other Indian languages will soon be included. “As we promote Hindi, other Indian languages too would gain and prosper,” he stated, emphasizing the importance of changing mindsets to bring about societal transformation.
During this event, Dr Jitendra Singh also took the opportunity to honor individuals with awards and released a book on the freedom fighter, Veer Savarkar.