India

This Is The Only Indian Language On New York’s Ballot Papers; Know Why

New Delhi: It may be the melting pot of America, with more than 200 languages being spoken in it, but the ballot papers in the US presidential elections on November 5 will have only four other languages apart from English.

And Bengali represents the Indian languages in this list.

“We are required to service four other languages besides English. It is Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bengali as the Asian languages,” NDTV reported Micheal J Ryan, Executive Director, Board of Elections, NYC as saying.

However, the inclusion of Bengali on ballot papers is not just a courtesy but a legal requirement. By law, New York City is obligated to provide voting materials in Bengali at certain poll sites. This mandate extends beyond just ballot papers to include other essential voting materials, ensuring comprehensive language support for Bengali-speaking voters, the report added.

Why is Bengali is among the list of languages the Board of Elections serves?

“There was a lawsuit about language access and as you know the country of India has a lot of different languages within it. The settlement of that lawsuit required within a certain population density to have an Asian Indian language. Then through some negotiations, they settled on Bengali. I understand the limitations of Bengali being the choice but it came out of a lawsuit,” Ryan was quoted as saying.

Notably, the first time the South Asian community in the Queen’s locality of New York found ballots translated into Bengali was in 2013. The addition 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 1965 Voting Rights Act.