EIGHTH SCHEDULE OF THE INDIAN CONSTITUTION

Recently, the Union Minister of Education has informed in the Lok Sabha about the various steps taken by the government to promote the Languages in Eighth Schedule

Important points

It lists the official languages of the republic of India. Part XVII of the Indian constitution deals with the official languages in Articles 343 to 351.

The Constitutional provisions related to the Eighth Schedule are:

1. Article 344(1) provides for the constitution of a Commission by the President on expiration of five years from the commencement of the Constitution.
2. It provides for the spread of the Hindi language to develop it so that it may serve as a medium of expression for all the elements of the composite culture of India.
3. However, It can be noted that there is no fixed criteria for any language to be considered for inclusion in the Eighth Schedule.

Official Languages:

• Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi,Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
• Of these languages, 14 were initially included in the Constitution.
• Sindhi language was added by the 21st Amendment Act of 1967.
• Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali were included by the 71st Amendment Act of 1992.
• Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, and Santhali were added by the 92nd Amendment Act of 2003 which came into force in 2004.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT