 STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION IN
 STATES

26. The Sub-Committees constituted for on-the-spot assessment of the status of implementation of Gujral Committee's recommendations in States visited ten States and one Union Territory. A consolidated report of the Sub-Committees is placed at Annexure VIII. The salient features of the report are as follows:

(i) article 350(A) of the Constitution lays down, that "it shall be the endeavour of every State and every local authority within the State to provide adequate facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage of education to children belonging to linguistic minority groups; and the President may issue such directions to any State as he considers necessary for securing the provision of such facilities." This provision of the Constitution has been disregarded in all the three aspects it emphasises viz. "endeavour", "adequate facilities" and "directions" to the States;

(ii) education has been brought to the Concurrent list as a result of the 42nd Amendment of the Constitution in 1976. Although it was a far reaching step with regard to the sharing of responsibility between the Union Government and the States, no benefits have accrued to the Urdu speaking population by this measure;

(iii) the state of primary education in Urdu in the country is highly unsatisfactory both quantitatively and qualitatively. To give only one example, there are only 1375 Urdu medium primary schools in Uttar Pradesh, which has an Urdu speaking population of 1,07,67,175 (according to 1981 census). The condition of these schools is deteriorating day by day, both in respect of numbers as well as quality of teaching;

(iv) the Gujral Committee's recommendation to set up Urdu medium primary schools where there are 10% or more Urdu speaking people has not been implemented in any of the states;

(v) the condition of the Urdu medium secondary schools in the states is also highly unsatisfactory both quantitatively and qualitatively. In Uttar Pradesh, of example, there is not a single Government Urdu medium secondary school (Classes VI to X). The Gujral Committee's recommendations for setting up of one Urdu medium higher secondary school for groups of 8-10 primary schools in states having concentration of Urdu speaking people has not been implemented in any of the states;

(vi) the Gujral Committee's recommendation regarding the Three Language Formula has not been implemented in any of the states in its true spirit;

(vii) the Gujral Committee's recommendation for setting up of one Urdu medium college in each state has not been implemented (except in Andhra Pradesh) primarily because of the fact that there is no feeder channel due to the lack of facilities at the secondary level;

(viii) the Gujral Committee's recommendation for starting of Correspondence Courses in Urdu in universities has remained, more or less, un-implemented;

(ix) there is acute shortage of Urdu medium teachers in the country. The Gujral Committee's recommendation regarding training of Urdu teachers, short-term courses to meet the acute shortage of Urdu teachers, reservation of seats for Urdu in general training programmes, have not been implemented;

(x) there is a general complaint that some Urdu text- books are not available at all while others are not available on time. This is also true for Adult Education and Non-Formal education centres. However, some states like Andhra Pradesh use the books prepared by Talim Ghar, Lucknow and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi for Adult Education. Osmania University, Hyderabad is also preparing such books. The distribution machinery of the Urdu text-books is also inadequate. The position with regard to the provision of teaching aids in the Urdu schools is highly unsatisfactory. The Gujral Committee's recommendations (4.323 to 4.326) regarding production and availability of Urdu text-books have not been implemented;

(xi) the machinery for ensuring standard and quality of Urdu medium schools as well as their inspection and supervision is inadequate because of lack of Urdu knowing staff;

(xii) the Gujral Committee's recommendations in respect of Constitutional Safeguards and Legislation for Urdu speaking people under Article 345 of the Constitution to provide for official use of minority language or languages in the States/UTs have not been implemented. Although the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have declared Urdu as the 2nd Official Language, no guidelines have been incorporated in the law to determine the purposes. Similarly, the Andhra Pradesh law provides for the official use of Urdu but does not give the guidelines to identify the purposes and the areas. The process of use of Urdu in administration in these states has also not yet been started;

(xiii) the Gujral Committee's recommendation for setting up of suitable machinery for the redressal of grievances of Urdu speaking people under the Chairmanship of State Chief Ministers has remained unimplemented in many of the states;

(xiv) the Gujral Committee's recommendation that State Governments should reassure the linguistic minorities that entry into services will not be denied to them on the basis of lack of knowledge of the language of the state, and that the candidates will acquire proficiency

and pass departmental tests in it before confirmation, is not being,implemented in the letter and spirit;

(xv) the Gujral Committee's recommendation that criteria for advertisements to Urdu journals should be relaxed has not been followed by the State Governments. There are no training programmes for Urdu journalists in the states. Osmania University in Hyderabad has recently started a diploma course in Urdu journalism. The Offices of the PIB in the states do not prepare and release news and features in Urdu even in most vital areas of national life viz. education, family planning and other developmental programmes. The number of Urdu books in state-owned libraries, even in Urdu speaking areas, is highly inadequate. Books for children and women in Urdu are conspicuous by their absence in libraries.

STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION IN STATES