Delhi Govt Hospital revokes controversial order forbidding nurses from speaking in Malayalam

New Delhi: Medical Director of Delhi government-run G B Pant hospital, Dr Anil Agarwal, says the facility has decided to revoke controversial order asking its nursing staff not to converse in Malayalam at work.

This comes after the Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER) in Delhi directed all its nursing personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication and said ‘serious actions’ would be taken against anyone found speaking in other languages.

A circular issued by the Nursing Superintendent of the hospital said GIPMER had received a complaint against the use of the Malayalam language.

“A complaint has been received regarding the Malayalam language is being used for communication in working places in GIPMER. Whereas maximum patient and colleagues do not know this language and feel helpless causing a lot of inconveniences,” the circular read.

“So it is directed to all Nursing Personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication otherwise serious action will be taken,” it added.

Commenting on the matter, Congress MP KC Venugopal urged Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan to order an immediate withdrawal of the “bizarre” and “unconstitutional” circular issued by the authorities of GIPMER.

“I urge to Hon’ble health Minister @drharshvardhan to order an immediate withdrawal of the bizarre & unconstitutional circular issued by the authorities of GIPMER,” Venugopal tweeted.

“Nurses from Kerala are sincerely discharging their duties across the world and taking care of the patients. Naturally, nurses belonging to the same region would speak the language among themselves as it is their mother tongue. It is illogical to assume that they would speak in their mother tongue to a person who can’t speak that language. The circular is, undoubtedly, highly discriminatory and denying the basic fundamental right guaranteed by our constitution,” the Congress MP stated in the letter.

Congress Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor called the circular and a violation of the basic human rights of Indian citizens.

“It boggles the mind that in democratic India a government institution can tell its nurses not to speak in their mother tongue to others who understand them. This is unacceptable, crude, offensive and a violation of the basic human rights of Indian citizens. A reprimand is overdue,” Tharoor tweeted.

It boggles the mind that in democratic India a government institution can tell its nurses not to speak in their mother tongue to others who understand them. This is unacceptable, crude,offensive and a violation of the basic human rights of Indian citizens. A reprimand is overdue! pic.twitter.com/za7Y4yYzzX

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 5, 2021