The Centre’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry has issued an order to Indian media asking them to refrain from using the word ‘Dalit’ in their news reporting.
In its advisory sent to media, the I&B ministry said, “Media should refrain from using the word Dalit while referring to the members belonging to the Schedule Caste community in compliance with the directions of the Bombay High Court and the constitutional term Schedule Caste in English and its appropriate translation in other regional languages should alone be used for all official transaction, matters dealing, certificates etc., for denoting the persons belonging to the Scheduled Castes notified in the Presidential orders issued under Article 341 of the Constit-ution of India.”
The letter was issued to TV channels on 7 August, said one executive working in one of the news channels.
This came after the Bombay High Court recently asked the I&B ministry and the Press Council of India to issue directives to the media to avoid using the word ‘Dalit’ in their news coverage.
In March this year, the Centre had issued a similar directive for the central and state government staff. The directive had read, “The central government/state governments and its functionaries would refrain from using the nomenclature ‘Dalit’ for the members belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as the same does not find mention in the Constitution or any statute.”
