Tuesday, January 21, 2014

ROLE OF LINK LANGUAGES IN HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN SAARC COUNTRIES


                                                                                                           
                                                                                                       

Introduction
Human Resource Development (HRD) is concerned with the learning and enhancement of individuals, of groups, of organizations, of communities, of nations and of the entire world. The economic, political, social, environmental, cultural as well as spiritual aspect are included when we plan the development of Human Resources. In order to accelerate economic and social development, including education, in south asian countries SAARC provides a very useful platform for working together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding. Human Resource Development is one of the five core areas of cooperation agreed upon by the member countries.The theme of this paper can be better highlighted by the story of some young agricultural engineers and their experiences on one of their first field trips. These young indian experts graduated from one of the universities in America and were ready to implement new farming technologies in various areas of south Asian countries. On the very first day of their job they came to terms with one issue which had apparently been neglected in the course of their training: language, the most important tool of communication. In spite of all the academic knowledge and theories about sharing information of new technologies with the south Asian people, apparently nobody ever thought that, the majority of these people could  not communicate in their acquired  language of education. The story illustrates quite well the cursory attention that has often been given to the language issue in south Asia’s development discourse. It is assumed (by Intellectuals & thinkers) that any language can be used effectively to launch any MNC’s  product . Though English is playing a significant role but in the rural and backward areas it fails to deliver because people are illiterate and the language is incapable of expressing all the technical expressions that are inherent in many academic fields. In such cases, where entrepreneurs and consumers both suffer, a link language is required in which a common consumer can understand the utility of a product easily which is helpful for their better life.

Relation between language and development
When we talk about development, language plays a vital role as it affects every part of global development and hence deserves requisite attention. This paper assesses and tries to decide the role of link languages in Human Resource Development of SAARC countries in terms of local lingual identity crises and its effects on human resources. Languages affect human resources in the most intimate manner. If a country wants to enhance it’s development it has to concentrate on human resources and basic requirements. Languages are the essential medium in which the ability to communicate across cultures develops. Only when one  has a knowledge of  several languages, it enables one to perceive new horizons , to think globally and to increase our understanding of ourselves and our neighbours. If there is a common language then both consumers and producers communicate and understand each other’s views, Languages are thus the very lifeline of globalization .Today the global economy is dependent on  a language in which one community communicates. If we talk about SAARC countries their gross development rate is low because language is playing a negative role in the economy. In these countries English is being used as a link language. If we talk about English  speakers, it is merely spoken by 20% of the population {about 35% can understand} but the rest of the consumers are unable to speak and understand English. They are able to communicate properly in their local language only. Moreover in rural or backward areas the percentage of English knowing consumers is even less due to illiteracy. So if we talk about development we cannot ignore  this point. Global market needs to strategize and launch their products in local languages or in an effective link language to boost the market.
Multilingualism and Multiculturalism
In SAARC countries many languages are spoken which express the culture of a county. I think there should be a language policy which aims to make children speak two languages (fluency not requisite) other than their mother tongue by the end of their compulsory education. By this type of policy SAARC countries can promote peace and development as a community through effective association of  knowledge and experience of multiple languages and cultures.  Through this they can understand the need of the market with regard to their tradition, taste and lifestyle. Higher  education can also play a big role in this. Universities can run special courses regarding languages which can be fruitful in human resource development.

Demand for proper language skills 
In the giant wave of globalization, there has been a rapid upsurge in the number of English speakers. Currently there are 400 million native speakers of English, and there is a much large figure of 1.5 billion speakers who use English on a daily basis as their second or third language. When we talk about SAARC countries the largest spoken language in this region is Hindi; it’s speakers numbering almost 422 million. The second largest spoken language is Bengali with about 210 million speakers. Urdu is also a major language spoken in the subcontinent, especially in Pakistan, and is similar linguistically to Hindi; Hindi and Urdu together make up Hindustani. Other languages of this region fall into a few major linguistic groups: the Dravidian and the Indo Aryan languages. Hence a large part of population speaks and understands Hindi properly in this region. Many dialects exist in this region but we can link all the people by a common thread that is link language only. If we train  human power in standard Hindi they can be used as a good resource person. Now a days MNCs need to launch their products in a local market. They are hiring call centres for this; if a large part of human is trained in Hindi the economic growth will naturally get a boost. Hindi skills required for use in a global society can not be developed through learning Hindi grammar, vocabulary, and by reading literature only. In order to develop student’s Hindi skills one should assign various projects and crash courses because there is a requirement of the standard Hindi with effective communication skills. This is the only way by which students can experience various forms of Hindi in a multicultural society and can grow as independent learners in the future.
Economy and language
South Asia is the poorest region in the world after Sub –Sahara Africa. According to UN’s multidimensional poverty index, just over a quarter of the world’s MPI poor people live in Africa while a half live in South Asia. Sri Lanka has the highest GDP per capita in this region (US Dollar 1.97 billion)  and makes up almost 82% of the South Asian economy. It is the 10th largest in nominal terms and 3rd largest in purchasing power adjusted exchange rates. India also has so many local dialects but has adopted Hindi as an official language. SAARC countries and their people should adopt Hindi as a link language because it is the need of global market and  it can  provide employment to young people of SAARC countries . They should also have high level education and specialization cultivated in wide range of fields and have the ability to develop relationships with others by overcoming language differences. If development involves the appropriate transformation of the socio-cultural, political and economic system of a society  and if language is seen as a repository and a tool for expression and communication of these very socio-cultural, political and economic systems of a society than it goes without saying that conceptualization and implementation of this social transformation can only be achieved through the use of the mother tongues or the languages indigenous to the society.

              Hence I think the local language will become a supportive hand in the local market in the era of globalization . Hindi is spoken and understood very well not only in India but also in other SAARC countries like Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan. It is derived from Indo Aryan language and most languages of this region belong to this family so there are many similarities among them. Hence it could well become the link and official language of SAARC. Thus This paper focuses on the relationship between language and economic development and offers a specific proposal for addressing issues of local language policy and planning in south Asian countries.



References:
1.    http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2012/Census_data_finder/HH_Series/Availability_of_assets.htm
       2.Census of India. 2012. Retrieved 3 14, 2012, from                            http://www.censusindia.gov.in:http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Census_Data_2001/Census_data_finder/H_Series/Number_of_household.htm

     3.Globalization.1996.Retrieved314,2012,from    www.bized.co.uk:http://www.bized.co.uk/search/node/globalizationHaspelmath, M. 2007.

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