‘Ganda’ no more: 21 villages set to get new names after MHA nod

A VILLAGE IN FATEHABAD OF HARYANA — GANDA, WHICH MEANS DIRTY IN ENGLISH — WAS RECHRISTENED AJIT NAGAR, ANOTHER VILLAGE IN THE STATE, KINNAR, HAS BEEN RENAMED GAIBA NAGAR

NEWDELHI: The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) has approved a name change for several villages whose names were considered by the local population to be derogatory to a particular gender or community or simply have a negative connotation, and is considering applications from several others for the same, according to government officials and documents seen by Hindustan Times.

The documents show that the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has to sign off on the name changes, received 30 applications from state and UT (union territory) administrations last year, including eight from Rajasthan and five each from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The ministry approved 21 and is still evaluating 9.

A senior home ministry official said on condition of anonymity: “The proposals for changing names are first sent by local administration to the state government. The state government does a basic check on whether the proposal is backed by popular public sentiment and if it is, the same is forwarded to the (home) ministry”. According to government officials some of the villages that were renamed last year include those with names that are colloquial terms derogatory to women , transgenders and the schedule castes.

Some of the villages concerned were small, with a population of around 700, the officials added.

According to the documents, the Haryana government proposed changing the name of Chamar Khera village located in Hisar district to Sundar Khera. The home ministry is considering this proposal. The Chamars are a Dalit community. The ministry approved the name of another Haryana village, Kinnar to Gaiba Nagar; the former is considered a derogatory word for the transgender community of India.