NESSDU demands mandatory Hindi in DU revoked

IMPHAL | Oct 12

North-East Students Society of Delhi University (NESSDU) demanded revocation of the HRD’s decision making Hindi compulsory in academic courses or introduce a Compulsory Hindi Test (CHT).

Vice president of the society and a representative of the state, V. S. Mungreishing elucidated on the issues faced by Northeastern students in the country’s capital. He said that making Hindi mandatory will be tough on the NE students studying Delhi University as they do not hail a region where Hindi is not their mother tongue.

A student of third semester in DU, Mungreishing told reporters at Manipur Press Club that “many seniors have completed their graduation but have not received their degrees as they flunked Hindi.”

“The result is a social stigma compelling our seniors to go no further than work in call centres or seek part time jobs, feeling ashamed of going back home because they do not have a degree in hand. They cannot even go for competitive exams and other well-paid jobs also,” he added.

Compulsory Hindi Test was imposed from the academic year 2013 in Delhi University for graduation students and is mandatory to get a degree.

He said that representatives of NESSDU started out to cover all NE states to give awareness to public as well as the government about hardships faced by students of NE studying in Delhi. He also said that he would meet the education minister and the chief minister to give recommendations to the central HRD department to remove the said mandate.

A recommendation was also submitted to the vice-chancellor recently but there is no response till date, he said.

The students’ society also demanded the construction of a hostel in the campus of DU especially for students of Manipur as accommodation charges are prohibitive in the campus vicinity.