Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government has directed all public institutions, educational establishments, and departments to discontinue the use of the term “Harijan” in official communications and records.

In a notification issued by the ST & SC Development, Minorities & Backward Classes Welfare Department to all Additional Chief Secretaries, Principal Secretaries, and Commissioner-cum-Secretaries, the government instructed that the word “Harijan” must not appear in any official communication, records, transactions, caste certificates, publications, departmental names, or any other form of use.

Instead, only the Constitutional term “Scheduled Caste”—in English or its appropriate translation in Odia or other recognised national languages—should be used to denote communities notified under Article 341 of the Constitution of India.

The order also urged authorities to sensitise all officers and staff to this directive and ensure that existing documents and records are updated in line with the instructions wherever possible.