IBPS Clerk Exam kept on hold by Finance Ministry – Burning Issues

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Finance ministry puts on hold examination for clerical cadre in PSU banks

The Finance Ministry on Tuesday directed the Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS) to put on hold examination for clerical cadre in public sector banks (PSBs) till a final view is taken on conducting tests in regional languages.
In order to look into the demand for holding examination for clerical cadre in PSBs in local/regional languages, a Committee has been constituted to look into the matter in its entirety.
The Committee will give its recommendations within 15 days. The ongoing process of holding the examination initiated by IBPS will be kept on hold until the recommendations of the Committee are made available

Recently, IBPS issued advertisement for holding an examination for recruitment in the clerical cadre of PSBs only in two languages–English and Hindi.
There has been demand particularly from Southern states to include other recognised regional languages for conducting bank clerical cadre. There are 22 languages recognized by the Constitution of India.
The Finance Minister in July 2019 had assured Parliament that the recruitment examination for employment in the Regional rural banks (RRBs) would be conducted in regional languages apart from English and Hindi.
With a view to providing a level-playing field to the local youths for availing employment opportunities, the government in 2019 decided that for recruitment of Office Assistant and Officer Scale I in RRBs, examination will be held in 13 regional languages including Konakani and Kannada, besides Hindi and English.

According to the 2001 Census, India has 30 languages that are spoken by more than a million people each.
Additionally, it has 122 languages that are spoken by at least 10,000 people each.
It also has 1,599 languages, most of which are dialects. These are restricted to specific regions and many of them are on the verge of extinction.
India must accommodate this plethora of languages in its cultural discourse and administrative apparatus.

Article 29 of the Constitution provides that a section of citizens having a distinct language, script or culture have the right to conserve the same.
The Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India lists the official languages of the Republic of India.
As per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the eighth schedule includes the recognition of the following 22 languages.
Currently, the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution contains 22 languages-Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution. Sindhi language was added in 1967. Thereafter three more languages viz., Konkani, Manipuri and Nepali were included in 1992. Subsequently Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Santhali were added in 2004.

At present, there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution. These are:-
(1) Angika, (2) Banjara, (3) Bazika, (4) Bhojpuri, (5) Bhoti, (6) Bhotia, (7) Bundelkhandi (8) Chhattisgarhi, (9) Dhatki, (10) English, (11) Garhwali (Pahari), (12) Gondi, (13) Gujjar/Gujjari (14) Ho, (15) Kachachhi, (16) Kamtapuri, (17) Karbi, (18) Khasi, (19) Kodava (Coorg), (20) Kok Barak, (21) Kumaoni (Pahari), (22) Kurak, (23) Kurmali, (24) Lepcha, (25) Limbu, (26) Mizo (Lushai), (27) Magahi, (28) Mundari, (29) Nagpuri, (30) Nicobarese, (31) Pahari (Himachali), (32) Pali, (33) Rajasthani, (34) Sambalpuri/Kosali, (35) Shaurseni (Prakrit), (36) Siraiki, (37) Tenyidi and (38) Tulu

“As the evolution of dialects and languages is dynamic, influenced by socio- eco-political developments, it is difficult to fix any criterion for languages, whether to distinguish them from dialects, or for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
Thus, both attempts, through the Pahwa (1996) and Sitakant Mohapatra (2003) Committees to evolve such fixed criteria have not borne fruit.

Tulu is a Dravidian language whose speakers are concentrated in two coastal districts of Karnataka and in Kasaragod district of Kerala. Kasaragod district is called ‘Sapta bhasha Samgama Bhumi (the confluence of seven languages)’, and Tulu is among the seven.
The Census reports 18,46,427 native speakers of Tulu in India.
The Tulu-speaking people are larger in number than speakers of Manipuri and Sanskrit, which have the Eighth Schedule status.
Robert Caldwell (1814-1891), in his book, A Comparative Grammar of the Dravidian or South-Indian Family of Languages, called Tulu as “one of the most highly developed languages of the Dravidian family”.

Efforts are being made to include Tulu in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. If included in the Eighth Schedule, Tulu would get recognition from the Sahitya Akademi.
Tulu books would be translated into other recognised Indian languages. Members of Parliament and MLAs could speak in Tulu in Parliament and State Assemblies, respectively.
Candidates could write all-India competitive examinations like the Civil Services exam in Tulu.