Dumka(Jharkhand), Feb 24 (PTI) Amid the ongoing language row in Jharkhand, a tribal body has demanded inclusion of Maundo, the language of the primitve Mal-Pahariya tribe, in the list of regional langugages.

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Paharia Land Mukti Sena Wednesday demanded that Chief Minister Hemant Soren should include Maundo, the language spoken by the tribe in Jharkhand in the regional languages list for deciding their domicile in the state.

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Arinjal Singh Paharia, the national president of the tribal body told PTI, "Mal-Paharias are local inhabitants of Jharkhand, mostly concentrated in areas of Santhal Paragana and as per Census 2011 there are approximately 1.35 lakh of them. Maundo is the mother language of the Mal-Paharias and not enlisting it in the language list has created a question mark on their existence."

According to Pandit Anup Kumar Bajpai, who specialises on tribes of the region and is the author of the book 'Purvi Bharat ke Paharia' on the Mal-Paharias, the tribe mainly resides on hills and slopes and depend on agriculture now and minor forest products.

"Although the government has launched various development schemes, the economic condition of the Paharia society is pathetic. There is tremendous spread of diseases like malaria, kala-azar and tuberculosis among them and face drinking water problem. The biggest problem of Pahariya villages is lack of connectivity," he said.

Recently several parts of Jharkhand witnessed massive protests against the inclusion of Bhojpuri and Magahi as regional languages in district-level competitive examinations for government jobs. The Jharkhand government last week withdrew the two languages from the list of regional languages of Dhanbad and Bokaro districts amid widespread protests.

The Department of Personnel, Administrative Reforms and Rajbhasha withdrew a notification dated December 24, 2021 that allowed these two languages in matric and intermediate-levels for appearing in recruitment examinations of district-level posts conducted by the Jharkhand State Staff Selection Commission.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)