The Union Government has informed the Odisha Government that an Inter-Ministerial Committee is making an in-depth study about inclusion of Sambalpuri (Kosali) and Ho languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution (the list of official languages of the country).
Union Minister of State Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju informed Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday that the committee is looking into the demands for inclusion of a large number of languages in the Eighth Schedule.
At present, 22 languages are included in the Eighth Schedule while there are demands for inclusion of 38 more languages, including Sambalpuri/Kosali and Ho, which are pending consideration.
The committee would make a detailed study of the whole gamut of the issues, including recommendations of the Sitakanta Mohapatra Committee.
Notably, a committee had been appointed way back in 2003 headed by former Secretary of the Union Ministry of Culture Dr Mohapatra to suggest a set of uniform criteria which may pave a way of deciding inclusion or otherwise of a language in the Eight Schedule. The Mohapatra Committee had presented its report in 2004 to the Union Government.
Now, the Inter-Ministerial Committee has held a number of meetings in recent months to evolve an objective criterion for inclusion of languages in the Eighth Schedule, said Rijiju. The Ministry of Home affairs is also trying to build consensus among all stakeholders, revealed he.
Earlier in a letter to Union Minister Home Affairs Rajnath Singh on July 10, Chief Minister Patnaik had said Sambalpuri is the mother tongue of about 75 lakh people spread over 10 contiguous districts of west Odisha.
“It has been put to writing for more than 50 years, is a medium of education in non-formal schools and has a robust tradition of many centuries in the form of folk music and folk literature. It forms the pride of a strong logistic identity and the resultant cultural homogeneity of the entire west Odisha region,” said the letter.
Arguing to include Ho, a language spoken in the tribal areas, in the Eighth Schedule, the Chief Minister said Ho language is the mother tongue of more than a million tribal people living on the borders of Odisha and Jharkhand. It also satisfies a majority of the criteria required for inclusion in the Eight Schedule.
Patnaik said a detailed proposal based on the recommendation of an Expert Committee, chaired by Rajendra Kishore Panda and other eminent linguists who have recommended inclusion of Sambalpuri and Ho in the Eighth Schedule, has been forwarded to the Centre.