Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities- UPSC Notes

Linguistic minorities are groups of people who live in the territory of India or any part thereof and have a distinct language or script.

• The Word linguistic minorities have not been defined in the Constitution of India. However, Linguistic minorities can be understood as any group or groups of people whose mother tongues are distinct from the principal language of the State and at the district and tehsil level, etc.
• A Linguistic Minority group may or may not belong to the speakers of 22 languages mentioned in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Why is there a need for the protection of linguistic minorities?

In India, the data collected about mother tongues shows that there are 1,369 mother tongues, which were regrouped into 270 mother tongues (spoken by more than 10,000 people) and 121 languages. This data tells volumes about the linguistic diversity in India.

However, despite this diversity, India has earned the dubious distinction of being the country with the greatest number of endangered languages – in the world. UNESCO’s Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger lists 197 Indian languages facing the risk of being endangered, making India the country with the most endangered languages in the world.

Safeguards for linguistic minorities mentioned in the Constitution:

The Constitution of India safeguards linguistic minorities under the following provisions:

State Reorganization Commission, 1956:

• Initially, The provision for creating a special officer for linguistic Minorities was not mentioned in the Constitution.
• Later, the State Reorganisation Commission in 1956 recommended the establishment of a mechanism to solve the problem of Linguistic minorities.
• 7^th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1957 was enacted based on the recommendation of the State Reorganisation Act and inserted Articles 350A and 350B in part XVII of the Constitution.

Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities (Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities):

• Commissioner for Linguistic Minorities: Under Article 350B(1), a post for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities was created. He is designated as Commissioner for linguistic Minorities.
• The Constitution does not mention the Qualification, Service of condition, Tenure, Salaries, and procedure for removal of the special officer for Linguistic Minorities.
• Duty: He/she investigates matters relating to protecting linguistic minorities under the Constitution [Article 350B (2)].
• Presentation of report: It is the responsibility of the particular officer for linguistics to report to the President upon the matters as the President may direct. The President laid all these reports to the houses of the Parliament.
• Headquarters: His headquarters is in Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh), and he is assisted by a Deputy Commissioner and an Assistant Commissioner.
• Regional Offices: The Commissioner has three regional offices and is assisted by an Assistant Commissioner:
• Belgaum (Karnataka)
• Chennai (Tamil Nadu)
• Kolkata (West Bengal)
• They maintain coordination with the state governments and Union Territories of India through nodal officers appointed by them.
• Ministry: The Commissioner falls under the Ministry of Minority Affairs at the Central level, and through the Union Minority Affairs Minister, he/she presents the annual reports or other reports to the President.