Tamil Nadu says no to Hindi word ‘Dahi’ on Aavin curd packets
The Hindu
Aavin informs Food Safety and Standards Authority of India that it will not print the Dahi, the Hindi word for curd, on its packets
The Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation, Aavin, has informed the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) that it will not print the word ‘Dahi’, the Hindi equivalent for curd on its packets. The FSSAI had proposed to drop the English term ‘curd’ and had wanted to include the term Dahi and had written to several cooperatives and private dairies asking them to change the term in their packaging.
Chief Minister M.K. Stalin criticised the FSSAI direction.
In a Twitter post, Mr. Stalin said the “unabashed insistences of #HindiImposition have come to the extent of directing us to label even a curd packet in Hindi, relegating Tamil and Kannada in our own States”.
“Such brazen disregard to our mother tongues will make sure those responsible are banished from South forever,” he added.
Dairy Development Minister S. M. Nasar said: “Imposition of Hindi is against the five cardinal principles of the DMK. We got a letter asking us to implement this [FSSAI directive] before August. But we said no. There is no place for Hindi here. Last year, they had wanted our packets to say ‘Doodh’ instead of milk. But we said ‘no’,” he explained.
In response to an article by The Hindu on the notification released by the FSSAI, BJP State President K. Annamalai issued a statement requesting an immediate rollback of the notification for using the Hindi word dahi. State-run cooperative milk societies must be allowed to use their regional language on the packets, he urged.
Mr. Annamalai said the Centre under Prime Minister Narendra Modi had always promoted regional languages. For the first time, the New Education Policy had emphasised educating children in their mother tongue, he said.
In 2021, five women from Mayithara, four of them MGNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) workers, found a common ground in their desire to create a sustainable livelihood by growing vegetables. Rajamma M., Mary Varkey, Valsala L., Elisho S., and Praseeda Sumesh, aged between 70 and 39, pooled their savings, rented a piece of land and began their collective vegetable farming journey under the Deepam Krishi group.