Delhi Hospital Revokes No Malayalam For Nurses Circular After Backlash

New Delhi: A Delhi hospital that recently passed the rule ‘banning the use of Malayalam’, faced heavy criticism. They were called out by many including Congress leaders and other officials. On Sunday, they withdrew the order.

The office of the Nursing Superintendent of Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (GIPMER) shared that the circular was issued “without any instructions or knowledge of the Hospital Administration and Delhi Government.” Therefore, “it stands withdrawn with immediate effect.”

The medical director of the hospital, Dr Anil Agarwal said that “The order had not come either from the Delhi government or the hospital’s administration and I had not been aware that it had been issued. It seems to have been an internal communication within the nursing staff. The immediate action is to rectify the issue, but those who are responsible will be pulled up.”

He further added that the nursing staff can converse in any language among themselves. It is their fundamental right. There cannot be an order banning the use of any language.

Formal order withdrawing the controversial circular disallowing nursing staff at GB Pant Hospital from speaking in Malayalam has been issued @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/4DNoWMkA3n

— Sukrita Baruah (@BaruahSukrita) June 6, 2021

What Happened?

A Delhi government-run hospital recently issued an order banning the nurses from speaking in Malayalam. The hospital warned them of serious consequences and said that action will be taken against them if they do not speak in English or Hindi.

The order stated that most of the patients and staff members do not know the language and feel helpless. It causes a lot of inconveniences. “So it is directed to all Nursing Personnel to use only Hindi and English for communication otherwise serious action will be taken.”

This incident came to light on Saturday. The nursing staff said that it shouldn’t be a problem for the hospital as they speak in Hindi with the patients. This decision is unreasonable, said the nurses of the Delhi government hospital.

Nursing officers from some of Delhi’s top hospitals like AIIMS, LNJP and others came together to form a committee. The officials said that they condemn this kind of action and that they will start a social media campaign against it.

Several political leaders including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi condemned this action. “Malayalam is as Indian as any other Indian language. Stop language discrimination!” wrote Gandhi on Twitter.