Parliament Question: Efforts to Promote and Preserve Konkani

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO-1275 ANSWERED ON - 28/07/2025 “Efforts to Promote and Preserve Konkani” 1275. Shri Captain Viriato Fernandes: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the reasons for not implementing the Konkani medium in degree programmes as a language policy reforms despite the demand of All-India Konkani Parishad. (b) The details of the steps taken by the government to mandate Konkani language in Degree programmes and to allocated fund to such Institutes; (c) the details of administrative requirements that have left colleges without key leadership or faculty on contrary to the UGC norms which is affecting the academic quality of Goa University; (d) the details of initiatives taken by the Government in launching Konkani-medium undergraduate or postgraduate programs in goa University supported under schemes like RUSA or NEP; (e) whether Goa University’s system lacking Konkani instruction beyond school, level; (f) whether the Konkani language is “unsafe” due to its minimal representation in Higher Education as per UNESCO’s warning report; (g) whether the Government plans to establish Konkani Language Commission to introduce it in Higher Education; and (h) the details of allocated grants for curricula, teacher training and research Programmes at the University level? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR) (a) to (h) The policy of the Government of India is to promote all Indian languages, including Konkani. The National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 emphasizes the promotion of multilingualism and encourages efforts to keep Indian languages vibrant. It focuses on both scheduled and non-scheduled Indian languages, and recommends, wherever possible, the use of the home language/mother tongue/local language as the medium of instruction at least up to Class 5, and preferably up to Class 8. The Government is integrating multilingualism at both school and higher education levels by providing reading materials in Indian languages, including Konkani, enabling students to study in their mother tongue or local language.As per the budget announcement of 2025-26, Government has proposed to implement a Bharitya Bhasha Pustak Scheme wherein the textbooks and study materials for every subject being offered by all education institutions for schools and higher education shall be made available in 22 Indian languages, including Konkani, in digital form. Education being in the Concurrent List, enhancing the quality of education is the responsibility of both the Central and State Governments. However, recognizing the need for central assistance, the Central Government has implemented various schemes for supporting State Governments’ Universities. Goa University is a state university. As per the information provided by Goa University, the University and its affiliated colleges are offering BA (Honors) in Konkani, MA in Konkani, and Ph.D. in Konkani program. Besides this, Goa University is also offering an offline Certificate Course in Konkani Proficiency of 100 hours for non- Konkani speakers. Also, at the UG level, for programs such as BBA, BCA, BA, BSc, B.Com., and Bachelor of Engineering (BE), Konkani is offered as a Modern Indian Language (MIL) under Ability Enhancement Course (AEC) as per NEP 2020 policy. Apart from the above, under the Malaviya Mission Teacher Training Programme (MMTTP) a centre has been established at Goa University, which aims to implement the recommendations of the National Education Policy (NEP), with a focus on quality teaching, equity, online education, integration of technology, promotion of Indian languages, vocational education, and multidisciplinary learning. Under the Centrally Funded Scheme of Government of India i.e. RUSA/PM-USHA, 30 projects with central support of ₹125.4 crore have been approved in the state of Goa under various components. Of this, Goa University has been approved central support of ₹84 crore under different components. From this fund, a Shenoi Goembab Konkani Computer Lab and a Konkani lecture hall of Goa University have been established and furnished. Western Regional Language Centre in Pune of Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) offers a ten-month diploma course in Konkani as a second language. This course is available in three levels—Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced—and is open to in-service teachers, prospective teachers, research scholars, and the general public. Besides, as part of the Linguistic Data Consortium for Indian Languages (LDC-IL) programme, the various Konkani datasets have been developed and released for public use, namely a) Gold standard Konkani Raw Text Corpus b) Konkani Raw Speech Corpus c) Konkani Sentence Aligned Speech Corpus. Additionally, CIIL under its project, Bharatvani works to disseminate knowledge in and about all Indian languages through its multilingual online portal (www.bharatvani.in) and mobile app. It is the world’s largest platform for text-searchable dictionaries and glossaries. The portal currently hosts 171 Konkani language resources. A total amount of ₹21,37,500/- was released to Goa University under the MMTTP Scheme for conducting approved teacher training programmes during the year 2024–25. *****