New Delhi: Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan Thursday urged the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to include ‘Ho’ language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India and accord it the status of an official language.
Pradhan, along with a delegation of representatives from the ‘Ho’ community, met Rajnath Singh at his office here.
“Tribal people from Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Assam and other areas met the Union Home Minister and requested him to include Ho language in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution of India, so, that people of the community can avail government benefits. Jharkhand government has already declared ‘Ho’ an official language and it is being taught in educational institutions there,” said Pradhan.
He further said that the Home Minister has assured the delegation that he would take necessary steps in this regard.
According to the members of the delegation that met Rajnath Singh, Ho is the primary language spoken by around 35 lakh people of the community spread across tribal tracts of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. This is the language of an ancient aboriginal people. Ho has developed its own script called ‘Warang Chiti’ and it does not derive from any other languages of India.
The Union Home Minister also said that the Narendra Modi government is committed to preserve, nourish and celebrate the inimitable linguistic heritage of India’s native communities like the Ho while taking all possible steps to promote their empowerment through literacy and inclusion.