At a time when the country’s medical fraternity is battling to get laws for their safety at the workplace established, a nurse in Bengaluru faced hostility for not speaking in ‘Kannada‘, the native language of Karnataka.
According to a social media user, a nurse was “scolded” by a patient’s family member for not knowing the local language, so much so that they asked her to “go back” to her hometown.
According to a post on Reddit narrating an incident at Apollo Bannerghatta, Redditor ‘Ashwin_or_lose’ saw a nurse getting scolded by a patient’s daughter because she didn’t speak Kannada. She “was told to go back to her home state.”
He said the nurse was helping the patient get into a wheelchair when her daughter asked a question in Kannada. “But when the nurse didn’t understand and asked to repeat, the daughter burst out.”
The Redditor suggested that bigger hospital chains assign nurses based on the language comfort of the patient.
However, he said, scolding general nurses is not worth it. “Bring your dissatisfaction to the management of any. Being a Karen to nurses who are already overworked is not it.”
This, however, is not just an isolated instance of non-Kannadigas facing hate in the city. There are countless instances of North Indians being harassed by auto drivers and other locals for not knowing the language.
Here is how the netizens reacted:
Several users reacted to the post, which has now garnered over 950 upvotes. A few of them also shared their experience at hospitals in Bengaluru.
“I am a kannadiga… I love to speak my mother tongue… But imposing a language on anybody is not the right way… Language should be learnt out of personal interest and need… If language can help you in better communication then why not learn or make an attempt… Also please don’t make conclusions that all kannadigas expect you to talk in kannada… Most of your kannada friends/colleagues talk to you in your own language… Please do appreciate them as they’re making your lives easy… Also out of genuine interest you can ask them to teach some kannada words… This will create a culture of inclusiveness,” a user said.
“Appollo Bannerghatta road has some of the nicest nurses that genuinely care for you and are patient with scared people like me. While they may not know Kannada, most of them speak decent English. But what’s most important is their ethic towards work and behaviour which I found to be much more professional and gentle as compared to other hospitals. Not sure why language should be a barrier between two people, even when two people dont know a common language there is always a way to communicate and figure out. Secondly just because the nurse doesn’t know Kannada, it implies nothing about her knowledge of her work. If language is a compulsory factor to get jobs, half of us Indians shouldn’t be accepted in Western countries considering the pathetic English most of us speak,” a user shared.
“Once admitted in hospital for long, I was cared for by a Mallu nurse. She didn’t know a lot of English. I don’t know Malayalam. But she was proficient at work. Very timely and professional. Very good at her work. I would never want someone speaking my language instead of professional like her… Language is secondary, healthcare is more important. Doctor incharge knew English which was enough,” shared another user.
“There used to be a time when most of the hospitals had nurses from Kerala and no one had a problem with ‘em coz they were efficient and managed to support the patient with whatever language they could. No one made a fuss then. I think people have become less patient and more demanding these days. But that’s just my view, I would go to a doctor who is good at his job irrespective of the language he speaks,” one user highlighted.