In a landmark decision, Union Ministry of Home Affairs has approved conducting Constable (General Duty) examination for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) in 13 Indian languages, in addition to Hindi and English.

According to the Home Ministry, the decision has been taken at the initiative of Union Home Minister Amit Shah to give impetus to participation of local youth in the CAPF and encourage regional languages.

The CAPFs are Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and the National Security Guard (NSG).

Apart from Hindi and English, the question paper will be set in the the 13 other Indian languages, which include Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Odia, Urdu, Punjabi, Manipuri and Konkani.

According to a statement by the Home Ministry, the decision will result in lakhs of aspirants taking part in the examination in their mother tongue/regional language and improve their selection prospects.

"The Ministry of Home Affairs and Staff Selection Commission would sign an addendum to the existing MoU to facilitate the conduct of the examination in multiple Indian languages," the statement said.

Constable GD is one of flagship examinations conducted by the Staff Selection Commission attracting lakhs of candidates from across the country, it said.

The examination in 13 regional languages in addition to Hindi and English will be conducted from 1 January 2024 onwards.

The ministry further said that it expects states and UT governments to launch wide campaign encouraging local youths to use this opportunity of taking the examination in their mother tongue and participate in huge numbers to make a career serving the country.