Urdu Uttar Pradesh’s 2nd official language, but few takers for its proficiency exam

Even though Urdu has remained the state’s second official language since 1989, the UP government’s Urdu proficiency examination appears to have evoked little interest over the years.

As the number of candidates taking the exam has remained negligible (in single digit over the past few years), the state government has been left with no option but to surrender the already minuscule budget earmarked for the proficiency examination.

Only five candidates took the examination in 2024-2025 and three in 2023-2024. The state language department has surrendered ₹1.05 lakh against the budgetary provision of ₹2.50 lakh made for conducting the examination in 2024-2025. It had surrendered ₹1.41 lakh of the budgeted sum of ₹2.50 lakh in 2023-2024.

“The state government has surrendered a sum of ₹1.41 lakh in 2023-2024 and ₹1.05 lakh in 2024-2025,” confirmed Jitendra Kumar, additional chief secretary, bhasha (language) department.

A scrutiny of the available data on students taking the examination indicates that nearly 34 candidates took the examination in 1984, 39 in 1986-87, 28 in 1989-90. and 29 in 1994. The number of examinees remained double digits in certain years - 1999 (11), 2000 (15), 2001 (14) 2003 (15), 2004 (10), 2008-2009 (11), 2010-2011 (26) and 2011-2012 (18).

Currently, the state government conducts the junior high school and high school level Urdu proficiency examination at four examination centres through the secondary education department. These centres are situated in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Moradabad and Agra. Those who get HS level proficiency certificate get ₹1400, ₹1000 and ₹800 for clearing the examination in first, second and third division, respectively. The junior high school level certificate carries cash rewards of ₹600, ₹400 and ₹200, respectively.

Those aware of the development said the state government needs employees proficient in Urdu to read and process old revenue records that were maintained in the language earlier. Therefore, the government has employees with Urdu proficiency in every district of UP.

“There appears to be a need to make people aware about the proficiency examination. Urdu is the second official language, but people need to be aware about what the state government is doing for them,” said Prof Abbas Raza Nayyar of Urdu department at Lucknow University.

There is an apparent lack of interest in following instructions as given in the state government’s order dated October 7, 1989, for use of Urdu as the second official language for seven specific purposes that include -- (1) disposal of applications in Urdu, (2) acceptance of Urdu documents in the state government offices, (3) availability of important rules and notifications in Urdu, (4) issuing of government orders/circulars of public importance in Urdu, (5) publicity of important government advertisements in Urdu, (6) publication of translation of official gazette in Urdu and (7) displaying of important sign boards in Urdu.

“There was a time when the state secretariat had name plates in Urdu. We don’t see this now. The translation of the state gazette, however, remains available in Urdu even now,” said those aware of the development.