The Gujral Committee Report - Language in India

for linguistic minorities. The Chief Mini Minister had told the Commissioner that pupils could-study these languages as subjects from the first primary class. safeguards
Statistical data in respect of educational facilities for Urdu, as for other minority languages, is not available. A large number of witnesses expressed unhappiness over the non-availability of adequate arrangements for teaching through the medium of 4.76
languages in Haryana which according to one view, minority
was the birth place of Urdu. They pleaded that the State should accord generous 40
to that language. A noted writer of Haryana told the Committee that since arrangements for the teaching of Urdu were not available, he himself had to spend two hours daily to teach the language to his children. treatment
According to 1971 census, there were 1,95,836 persons who had returned Urdu as 4.77
mother tongue In Gurgaon district but the district had arrangements for teaching Urdu only as an additional sub- ject in two schools. Writers, journalists and educationists, who appeared before us demanded that Urdu should be allowed as their
of instruction at the primary and secondary levels in the areas where Urdu speakers were concentrated or where it was widely in use. medium
Shri Bansi Lal, Chief Minister of the State, at his meeting with the Committee 4.78
stated that it was his Governments' policy to provide facilities for education in the minority languages if so demanded by the lingusitic minorities. In the preceding year, he added only 68 students had offered Urdu as a subject at the junior secondary members
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The Gujral Committee Report
level. That was not indicative of a high demand. The Home Minister of Haryana told the Committee that the reason for, a very few schools teaching Urdu as a language subject was the lack of desire on the Part of the students to study through that medium. If there was demand for teaching of Urdu, necessary facilities would be provided.
on Urdu