More students opting for PhD in Indian languages, reveals new report

Since 2014-15, the number of students enrolled in a PhD programme in Indian languages increased from 5,874 to 7,850 in 2017-18.

The number of students opting for a PhD programme in Indian languages has risen over the past few years, an analysis of an All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) report released on July 27, has revealed.

At 2,270 the highest number of students are enrolled for a PhD in Hindi. (HT File Photo)

Since 2014-15, the number of students enrolled in a PhD programme in Indian languages increased from 5,874 to 7,850 in 2017-18 according to the survey.

The PhD in Indian languages, is divided into 11 sub-streams.

At 2,270 the highest number of students are enrolled for a PhD in Hindi. Of these, 1,174 are male students and 1,096 are females. Sanskrit has the second highest number of students.

There are 971 students enrolled of whom, 529 are males and 442 are females.

“Altogether, at the PG level, there are 3.28 lakh students enrolled in Indian languages out of which 2.02 lakh are females and 1.25 lakh are males. Hindi with 1,29,440 students has the highest number of students enrolled at PG level. Out of that 63.3% are females and rest males. Bengali has 35,238 students at PG level with 55.37% female students. Urdu has 23,049 students enrolled at PG level with 59.68% females. Sanskrit has total number of 26,886 students with 61.3% females at PG level,” reads the report, released by Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar.

“There is an increased interest in Indian languages across the world; especially Sanskrit. At the same time, due to the emphasis that is being paid on Yoga and Sanskrit, more job opportunities have been created...” said Manoj Kumar Mishra, a professor of the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, a deemed university.