Modify recruitment guidelines : ATSUM
Source: The Sangai Express / Newmai News Network
Imphal, June 07 2022:
The All Tribal Students' Union, Manipur (ATSUM) has urged the Superintendent of Post Offices, Manipur Division, today for modification of recruitment guidelines with respect to "compulsory knowledge of local language" .
In a statement, ATSUM said the notification for online recruitment of Gramin Daksevaks, 2022 of the Manipur Postal division under North East Circle in the local newspapers came as a "shocker to the tribal populace of the state wherein candidates were mandated to have studied Manipuri at least upto the 10th standard as declared by the state board" .
ATSUM said that this recruitment guideline of mandating Manipuri language is tantamount to imposition of "dominant general category Meitei/Manipuri language on the innocent tribal people and thereby, systematically discriminating substantial numbers of potential candidates belonging to Scheduled Tribe communities" .
The statement further added that Manipur has 34 Scheduled Tribes recognised under the Constitution.
Scheduled tribes constitute 34.2% of the total population of the Manipur state according to the 2001 census, speak their own different languages and most of the languages of the recognised Scheduled Tribes are incorporated as a Major Indian Language (MIL) as part of standard curriculum in schools and educational institutions, the statement explained.
"For which, tribal people normally opted to study their own language (MIL) or Additional English in lieu of Meitei/Manipuri language in Class 10 and Class 12 standards.
As such, mandating the scheduled tribe candidates to produce 10th certificate of studying Meitei/Manipuri language for recruitment to the post of Gramin Daksevaks (GDS) in the Manipur Post Division is unfair," it pointed out.