Translation Services In Parliament Expanded, Six New Languages Added, Including Bodo And Manipuri

NEW DELHI: In a major decision, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla announced on Tuesday the expansion of translation services in Parliament into six more languages: Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Urdu, and Sanskrit. These are in addition to the already ten dialects in the country—Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, besides Hindi and English.

Birla stressed the point that the Indian parliamentary system has to be an inclusive one and said, "Our effort is that, for the 22 languages that are officially recognized, we aim to include them in the future as well." He further added that the government would be working to provide simultaneous translations in an additional 16 languages once human resources become available.

However, on the announcement, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran expressed dissent questioning the spending of public money on the translation of Sanskrit as it is spoken by only 70,000 people according to the census data. Speaker Birla said, "This is India, whose 'Mool Bhasha' has been Sanskrit. That's why we had mentioned 22 languages, not just Sanskrit. Why did you have an issue with Sanskrit?”

The initiative reflects the government's commitment to enhancing communication and accessibility within the parliamentary framework, ensuring that diverse linguistic communities are represented.

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