Maj Gen SK Sharma
It is surprising to see that in a place like Jammu, organizations are struggling and devoting time for Signature Campaigns for the problems not sorted out by the Govt. Currently, two signature campaigns are very strongly being pursued in Jammu province.
One signature campaign is to make Dogri language a compulsory subject in primary classes in schools of Jammu province which is in line with the National Education Policy – 2020. Whereas the second campaign is requesting the govt. to open a 24×7 Duggar Satellite Channel in Jammu.
Both the signature campaigns are from Dogra organizations as they feel aggrieved for their demands which have not been met by the govt. despite their best efforts.
Signature Campaign 1:
Dogra organisations feel that the Dogri language is being sidelined even though it is the mother tongue of over 30 lakh Dogras of the Jammu region.
The tagline of the Signature Campaign is “Make Dogri a compulsory subject in primary schools in Jammu Province.”
Justification:
Dogri is the mother tongue of around 30 lakh citizens of Jammu province. It was an official language of J&K state before 1947 and got national status in 2003 when it was included in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It again became the official language of J&K Union Territory in 2020.
As per the standard norms in the country, any language which is a national as well as the state language, is taught as a compulsory subject in all the primary classes whereas in a few states, it is compulsory up to 8th class.
Even as per the National Education Policy issued by the Govt. of India in 2020, all the private as well as govt. schools are to teach all the subjects in the mother tongue at least till 5th class and preferably up to 8th class.
Many organizations including Senior Citizens SS Club, Chowadi have taken up this issue with all the govt. officials a number of times. In September 2023, the club officials met the Lt. Governor and submitted the proposal to him. He immediately accepted it and gave the impression that the teaching of the mother tongue Dogri will commence in all schools from April 2024.
Later, its representatives met Rajiv Bhatnagar, Advisor to Lt Governor and Piyush Singla, the then Secretary School Education. They also met Project Director, Samagra Shiksha J&K, Chairman JK BOSE and Director JK SCERT besides a few CEOs and ZEOs.
But to date, Dogri has not been made a compulsory subject in primary classes.
As per the “Right of Children to Free Education Act 2009”, all the states are to provide free books to children up to the age of 14 years, However, in a survey conducted in the govt. schools of Jammu city, teachers revealed that Govt. does not print Dogri books for 3rd, 4th and 5th classes whereas it prints books for all other subjects like Hindi, Urdu, English and gives free to the students. As per teachers, Govt. claims that it does not have funds for Dogri books.
As free Dogri books are not provided for classes 3rd to 5th despite their demand, year after year, the school teachers have stopped projecting their demand for classes 6th onwards leading to almost eclipse of Dogri language up to middle schools.
The people of Jammu do not understand why this issue was not raised by the elected members, MLAs, MPs etc. of Jammu province and solved to date. They consider this as a failure of the elected representatives of Jammu and that is how they have now gone for the signature campaign to gather the opinion of the public and present it to the govt.
When this article was being written, over 1,000 people had already signed the signature campaign in its favour.
Signature Campaign 2:
A 24×7 Satellite Channel is a very effective method of communicating information, entertainment as well as educating the public. It also safeguards the cultural heritage, customs and traditions of the locals. In Jammu, there is no such satellite channel.
Doordarshan Approved Drama Artists Association (DADAA) has started a signature campaign with the tagline “Open a dedicated 24×7 Duggar Satellite Channel in Jammu”. This campaign is supported by many organizations of J&K.
History of Satellite Channel in J&K
In 1973, a television station was opened in Srinagar. It was upgraded to a Regional Language satellite channel later in 2000 with round-the-clock transmission through satellite to beam various programmes of interest besides countering the propaganda of Pakistan. It is tasked to produce programmes in different languages/dialects spoken by people of different regions of the state.
Justification for Duggar Channel
India is a multicultural country with each culture represented by 22 major languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution. For information and entertainment, Prasar Bharati has opened 35 satellite channels for the promotion of each culture as well as entertainment and information for the citizens.
Satellite Channels like DD News, DD Kisan, DD Urdu etc. are at the national/international level whereas the balance 28 channels adequately represent the 21 national languages adequately but not the Dogri language.
The population of Dogra community in J&K itself is around 30 lakh but it does not have any satellite channel. Whereas other cultures/states with even less population than Dogra community are provided with independent satellite channels. Examples are Mizos (population – 11 lakh), Bodos (14 lakh), Manipuri (15 lakh), Konkani (22 lakh), Nagas (22 lakh) Nepali (29 lakh) etc. For Bangla culture, there are two satellite channels, one in West Bengal and second in Tripura with the official language as Bengali.
Establishing a 24×7 Duggar Satellite Channel will have the following benefits:
It will safeguard the culture, traditions and customs of Dogras as well as other communities of the Jammu region. Besides, its programmes would reach even to the remotest and border villages of Jammu fostering a sense of togetherness in the culture.
Secondly, terrorism in Kashmir does not allow the free participation of artists. And all its non-Kashmiri artists operate mostly from Jammu. Hence, a channel in Jammu would be more cost effective.
It will also generate employment opportunities in the Jammu region.
Desired Action by Elected Representatives
Elected representatives of Jammu region, MLAs, MPs and J&K govt. must address these issues of Dogra community so that they do not have to go in for methods like signature campaigns and waste their useful time.
(The author is AVSM Member, Board of Directors, DOGRA and former Member, SMVD Shrine Board)
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