Rajya Sabha adds 5 more languages to its interpretation facility; number of languages for speaking becomes 22

New Delhi, July 11: The Members of the Rajya Sabha can speak in any of the 22 Scheduled Languages from the Monsoon Session of Parliament beginning on the 18th of this month.

 

Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu said that simultaneous interpretation facility was added on Tuesday in five more languages- Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Santhali, and Sindhi in the Upper House of Parliament.

Of the 22 scheduled languages, Rajya Sabha has earlier established Simultaneous Interpretation Service for 12 languages -- Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

For five languages - Bodo, Maithili, Manipuri, Marathi and Nepali, interpreters of Lok Sabha are being deployed. Naidu said he has always felt that mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts without any retention.

Vice President Naidu said: "I have always felt that mother tongue is the natural medium to convey our feelings and thoughts without any retention. In a multilingual setting such as Parliament, members must not feel handicapped or inferior to others due to language constraints."

"That's why I was keen to have simultaneous interpretation facility for all the 22 Scheduled languages. I am glad this is becoming a reality from the coming Monsoon Session," he added.

According to a statement by Rajya Sabha Secretariat, "special efforts" to identify, select and train interpreters in these five languages and took help of various universities and missions of the states in New Delhi.