The State government has set up Tamil Nadu Linguistic Minorities Social and Economic Development Corporation (TALMEDCO) under the Companies Act, 2013, to cater to the requirements of notified linguistic minorities who are not included or covered by the religious minorities.
The government's decision is aimed at benefitting linguistic minorities in Tamil Nadu who are groups of people whose mother tongue is different from the principal language of the State i.e., Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu and Saurashtra speakers, among others.
As per the 2011 Census, the population of linguistic minorities in Tamil Nadu is 83.84 lakh, which is 11.63% of the State population. “Linguistic minorities face many problems, including the inability to access education in a language of their choice, under-representation in employment, business and inadequate access to economic opportunities,” the G.O. issued in January stated.
The poor offtake of schemes amongst linguistic minorities was "a matter of concern," it observed and advocated for the setting up of a separate corporation for the socio-economic development of linguistic minorities to provide them better access to various schemes and promote their interests.
TALMEDCO has been constituted to promote the social and economic development of the linguistic minorities in the State, with special emphasis on the backward and disadvantaged sections, including women.
It would act as a nodal agency to implement and channelise various government policies and programmes for the development of linguistic minorities and would facilitate access to various Government services.
It would take steps for the preservation and promotion of their languages.
The Corporation has been permitted to mobilise loans from other institutions, including commercial banks for onward lending to beneficiaries.
The 16-member Board of the Chennai-headquartered Corporation would be headed by the Chairperson, who would be nominated by the State government.
