A Delhi government-run hospital on Saturday halted its nursing staff from speaking in Malayalam on the premises of the medical facility. It informed them of \u201cserious action\u201d if they do not talk in English or Hindi.<\/p>\n
\u201cA complaint has been received regarding Malayalam language being used for communication in working places in GIPMER,\u201d ran a circular issued by the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research. \u201cWhereas maximum patients and colleagues do not know this language and feel helpless causing a lot of inconveniences. So it is directed all nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication. Otherwise, serious action will be taken.\u201d<\/p>\n
This new “law” faced severe backlash with heavy criticism for its language diktat, and the Delhi govt-run GIPMER withdrew its circular forbidding its nursing staff from communicating in Malayalam on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The nurses too at the hospital had criticized the new rule, and Jeemol Shaji, a nurse from Kerala, who is the general secretary of the nurses\u2019 union in Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital said that they speak to the patients in Hindi and only talk to other people from Kerala in Malayalam at the hospital,\u201d\u00a0 she added, \u201cIt is our mother tongue. How can they say the staff cannot talk in Malayalam? Will they tell Punjabis not to talk in Punjabi among themselves?\u201d<\/p>\n
GB Pant nurses\u2019 association president Liladhar Ramchandani said that the circular was the result of a patient\u2019s complaint and claimed that there was \u201cno issue among the nurses and the administration.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a language\u2019s name, Malayalam, has been inserted in the circular, many will take offense,\u201d Ramchandani said.<\/p>\n
In light of the circular, Malayali nursing officer representatives from various Delhi hospitals including Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, All India Institute Of Medical Sciences, and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, had formed a committee to denounce the order, and they have also decided to launch a social media campaign against it.<\/p>\n
Many Congress leaders criticized the order. Party leader Rahul Gandhi called for stopping language discrimination.<\/p>\n
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\nMalayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. <\/p>\n
Stop language discrimination! pic.twitter.com\/SSBQiQyfFi<\/a><\/p>\n
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 6, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n