At a time when the anger against Hindi imposition has revived in the State, the Engineering Electronics and General Workers’ Union, which is affiliated to Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), has requested its members to learn Hindi.
A few days back, the union sent out messages on WhatsApp to its members suggesting them to learn the language.
“There are thousands of Hindi speaking people employed in the construction and other sectors. These workers come to us to voice their problems and concerns. Every time they approach us we need to call someone who knows the language for translation. We then decided why not ask our own members to learn the language,” said M. Vijayakumar, General Secretary of the Engineering Electronics And General Workers Union and vice-president of CITU - South Madras.
This will also help workers communicate with their Hindi speaking counterparts at work, he said. After Mr. Vijayakumar posted the details on social media several people criticised him.
“After I posted this comment several people called me and argued about this. Some of them even criticised this initiative. This is a voluntary initiative and we are not compelling anyone,” he said.
He clarified that this initiative was planned few months ago.
S. Kannan, CITU president, Kancheepuram district, said the initiative was to update their language skills. This will help them communicate with Hindi-speaking workers, he added.