Backdrop:

Hindi is one of the major languages spoken by around 50 per cent of the population of India. “Hindi in Devanagari Script” is also recognized as the Official Language of India in terms of Article 343 (1) of the Indian Constitution. It thus occupies a prime position in the country’s context of languages though India remains a multi-cultural and multi-linguistic country.

After implementation of NEP 2020, the importance of Hindi has further increased as it is the “mother tongue” in several states of the country and school education (up to standard V) is proposed to be in the mother language only. As Hindi is considered a direct sub-set of Sanskrit, there is a lot of research and importance given to the subject in recent times.

Hence, it has assumed great emergence in terms of job opportunities to many students who specialize in Hindi through basic graduation degree in it.

Major Job Profiles:

1.   Teaching & Research Career: Hindi offers a great teaching career both at school as well as higher education. India needs many Hindi teachers at various levels. The students, however, need to possess required qualifications for the same. Same is true for the research positions as well.

2.   Hindi Translators: All official documents of the government at central as well as certain state level are to be written in Hindi in addition to English. Many foreign dignitaries who visit India also need help from Hindi Translators to make them understand the agreements / documents / transcripts / and even oral dialogues. The need for Hindi translators is, therefore, on the increase.

3.   Corporate Assignments: Many corporates are now looking for people at field level who know the local language. This is particularly true for certain jobs like sales, operation, tele calling, customer service, troubleshooting, etc. This helps them to communicate with the local customers with greater ease. As Hindi is the most common spoken form of Indian language, candidates who are fluent in both oral as well as written Hindi are always preferred particularly for posting in entire Hindi belt of northern India. Thus, there is great demand for people who have formal degrees in Hindi besides other technical qualifications.

4.   Journalism: The career of a journalist often involves research, analysis, and writing articles in papers or anchoring in professional channels like TV, etc. The space for “Hindi journalism” is very big as it is the most used language in India after English. The career of journalism is, therefore, of great relevance to Hindi qualified journalists.

Educational Qualifications:

Though a basic degree in Hindi is essential to start a career, it will always be prudent to go in for master’s or even doctoral degree for research or teaching career. Knowledge of Hindi will give heads start to many of the careers described above, but certain technical qualifications will be needed for specific careers. For example, diploma in sales for “sales positions”, degree in journalism for career as a “journalist”, and so on. For a sustainable corporate career, students should do MBA degree after graduation in Hindi.

Needed Competencies:

Students need to be proficient in both oral as well as written Hindi. Good communication and persuasion skills are needed for success in many such jobs. Customer centricity is the other required trait. For deeper research, students should be focused and academically sound.

Future Outlook:

By Dr A K Sen Gupta, Founder and Convener, Higher Education Forum (HEF). He is former Director of SIES College of Management Studies (SIESCOMS), Navi Mumbai and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan’s S P Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR), Mumbai. He may be contacted at aksengupta51@gmail.com or 9821128103.