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US Presidential elections 2024: The Bengali language will be printed in the New York’s US presidential election ballots. The New York city boasts of a melting pot of cultures where over 200 kinds of languages are spoken
According to New York City’s Board of Elections Executive Director Micheal J Ryan, there was a need to have Asian languages on the ballot paper in view of the city’s diversity.
New Delhi: As US electorate prepares to vote to elect the next American president on November 5, the choice of a new Indian language on the 2024 election ballot has baffled many. In a new addition, the ballot papers in US will have ‘Bengali’ as the new language.
The Bengali language will be printed in the New York’s US presidential election ballots. The New York city boasts of a melting pot of cultures where over 200 kinds of languages are spoken.
Why Bengali on US ballot papers
Now the question arises why the Bengali language was chosen among other languages on the New York ballot papers. Asian American Federation (AAF) estimates that 66 per cent of immigrants residing in the city do not speak English as their first language. This means that the remaining 45 per cent Asian Americans don’t have much proficiency in English, said a report in First Post.
What New York Election Board director says
According to New York City’s Board of Elections Executive Director Micheal J Ryan, there was a need to have Asian languages on the ballot paper in view of the city’s diversity.
Keeping this diversity in mind, Micheal J Ryan, Executive Director of New York City’s Board of Elections, emphasised the necessity of including Asian languages on ballots.
Ryan told PTI that four other languages including Chinese, Spanish, Korean and Bengali needed to be serviced apart from English. Also, the city of New York has a vast number of people who speak Bengali language. This includes people from both India and Bangladesh.
A report by Asian American Federation in 2022 detailed that 12.2 people in New York speak Bengali. While a large number of people speak Chinese 53.6 per cent. Hindi language comes at third position with 3.3 per cent.
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