US Presidential Election: Bengali is the only Indian language to find place on New York ballot papers

New York: Bengali is the only Indian language to find a place on the New York ballot papers. In fact, more than 200 languages ​​are spoken in New York, due to which it is called America's largest multilingual state. But in the US presidential election going to be held tomorrow on November 5, there will be only four other languages ​​apart from English in the ballot papers. In which Bengali is the only Indian language. The City Planning Department of New York gave this information.

Voting will be held in America on Tuesday to elect the 47th President. Michael J. Ryan, executive director of the New York-based Board of Elections, said that apart from English, we also have to include four other languages. Asian languages ​​include Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bengali. Subhashish, who works as a sales agent in a store located in 'Times Square', belongs to Bengal. He is happy that his father, who lives in the Queens area, will get linguistic assistance to cast his vote.

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Subhashish said that people like me know English but there are many people in our community who do not know this language. This will help them at the polling booth by including Bengali language in the ballot paper. I am sure my father would like the idea of ​​seeing a Bengali language ballot. The use of Bengali language on ballot papers is not just a courtesy but also a legal requirement. By law, some polling places in New York City are required to provide voting materials in Bengali.

This requirement applies not only to ballot papers but also to other essential voting materials, thereby helping Bengali-speaking voters. Ryan explained why only Bengali is included in the list of languages ​​which are recognized by the Board of Elections apart from English. He told that a lawsuit was filed regarding the language information and as you know there are many different languages ​​in India. The settlement of that lawsuit required the existence of an Asian Indian language within a certain population density. An agreement was reached on Bangla through talks. I understand the limitations of choosing Bangla but it happened because of a lawsuit.

The South Asian community in New York's Queens area first received ballots translated into Bengali in 2013. The inclusion of Bengali language ballots came nearly two years after the federal government ordered the city to provide language assistance to South Asian minorities under a provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Bengali-speaking population includes people coming from Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh.

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Although not representative of all languages ​​spoken in the region, the inclusion of this language is expected to have a significant impact on voter participation within the Bengali-speaking community. Dr. Avinash Gupta, President of Federation of Indian Association, says that this will help the Indian community. Dr. Avinash Gupta said that this will help the Indian people to go out and vote. This way we can raise our voice. Our population is very large. It is heartening to see how Indians come out to vote and also contest elections.