Use of regional languages in Rajya Sabha rises over five times

The use of regional languages in the proceedings of Rajya Sabha has increased over five times between 2018 and 2020, the Upper House said on Saturday.

As per an official release, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu has been regularly urging the members of the House to use their regional languages during proceedings in the spirit of the federal nature of the House.

"During this period, four languages -- Dogri, Kashmiri, Konk and Sonthali -- have been used for the first time since the Rajya Sabha came into being in 1952 and another 6 languages -- Assamese, Bodo, Gujarati, Maithili, Mpuri and Nepali -- have been used after a long gap," it stated.

The release said that while Hindi and English are the widely used languages during the proceedings of the House, the use of 21 other scheduled Indian languages (other than Hindi) has increased to over five times (512 per cent) per sitting in 2020 over that of the 14 year period between 2004-17.

"Rajya Sabha members spoke in 10 scheduled languages (other than Hindi) in the House on 269 occasions during 923 sittings between 2004 and 2017 at the rate of 0.291 per sitting. In 2020, 49 interventions in regional languages were made during 33 sittings at the rate of 1.49 per sitting, marking an increase to 512 per cent," it stated further.

Rajya Sabha observed that during 2013-17 spanning over 329 sittings, members spoke only in 10 regional languages (other than Hindi) on 96 times, all limited to debates.

"However, during 2018-20 with 163 sittings, regional languages were used 135 times including 66 interventions in debates, 62 Zero Hour and 7 Special Mentions. Four of the 22 scheduled languages viz., Dogri, Kashmiri, Konk and Santhali were used for the first time in the House since 1952, further to the introduction of Simultaneous Interpretation Service in these four languages and Sindhi at the behest of Chairman Shri Venkaiah Naidu in 2018," it added.

While announcing the availability of Simultaneous Interpretation Facilities in all the 22 scheduled languages in July, 2018, Naidu spoke in 10 languages in the House.

According to official data, the number of times the regional languages (other than Hindi) were used during 2013-17 (329 sittings) and 2018-20 (163 sittings) respectively were-- Tamil (32 and 18), Telugu (19 and 33), Urdu (19 and 24), Bengali (6 and 17), Sanskrit (0 and 12), Marathi (3 and 6), Odiya (5 and 6), Kannada (2 and 5), Punjabi (2 and 3), Malyayalam (2 and 0) and Assamese (0 and 2).

With 12 interventions in Sanskrit, all during 2019-20, Rajya Sabha said it has emerged as the fifth widely used in the Rajya Sabha among the 22 scheduled languages coming after Hindi, Telugu, Urdu and Tamil.

( With inputs from ANI )