The National Policy on Education, 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2023 promoted multilingualism, and also encouraged foreign languages as part of a globally connected education system.

However, the recent implementation of the CBSE language structure, which mandated a three-language formula, has created a situation where foreign languages such as French, German, and Spanish are rapidly losing meaningful space in schools.

Students from Classes 6 to 10 are now expected to study three compulsory languages, two of which must be native to India. In practice, this leaves little realistic space for any foreign language other than English. Given English’s wider utility, very few people are likely to choose French, German, or Spanish over it.

And expecting students to pick a fourth language after they are already under the academic pressure of Maths, Science, Social Science, and three languages seems impractical.

As a result, many schools have already started reducing or discontinuing foreign languages in middle and secondary classes.

'Can't Change My Career or Start Afresh'

I have devoted more than 10 years of my life to this profession. Teaching French was not just my job—it became my identity, my passion, and the way I built my family’s future. Today, for the first time, I fear losing that future.

I am the only earning member in my family. I have a wife and young children who depend entirely on me. I wonder: What if I get laid off? How will I pay my children’s school fees? How will I pay loans and household expenses? How will I feed my family?

At this stage of life, suddenly changing professions is not easy. Even if I try to enter the corporate sector, I will most likely have to start with a fresher-level salary because I do not have relevant experience in that space, despite having years of professional teaching and communication experience.

Sometimes I ask myself: Were the last 10+ years of dedication, qualifications, training, and hard work meaningless?

'Many Others Feeling the Pressure'

And my situation is not unique.

Some of my colleagues have spent 15-20 years in this profession. Many are the sole earning members in their families. Behind every “foreign language teacher” is a family living with growing uncertainty and fear.

At the same time, students are also suffering.

Many students who have been learning French or other foreign languages for the last 4-5 years are now suddenly being forced to change direction academically.

Students are already stressed because of syllabus changes, delayed availability of books, intense competition, exam-related controversies, and uncertainty regarding future careers and employment.

Instead of expanding opportunities, the current implementation is unintentionally reducing students’ choices and global exposure.

I would like to clarify that we fully support Indian languages and multilingualism. Our concern is not with Indian languages, but with ensuring that students and educators are not unfairly disadvantaged in the process.

Our concern is about balance, student choice, proper implementation, and preserving multilingual education in the true spirit of NEP 2020.

If India wants to become a global leader and create globally aware citizens, then students should not be forced into a system where international languages and global opportunities gradually disappear from mainstream education.

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether the CBSE’s mandatory three-language policy for class 9 students places undue pressure on students, and whether there are logistical challenges in implementing it or not. 

But I want to highlight that the case should also be viewed from the POV of foreign-language teachers like me.

Dharmendra Pradhan Defends 3-Language Policy

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has defended the CBSE's new three-languages system for Class 9 students. 

Speaking to NDTV, Pradhan said that the CBSE has not introduced an entirely new system. Pradhan claims that "99% of CBSE schools" are already studying in their native language from Classes 6 to 8, and the latest circular only states that the arrangement should continue in Class 9 as well.

Defending the three-language policy, the minister said, “My daughter studied Marathi till Class 8,” arguing that learning in one’s mother tongue is not unusual in India.

(Mohit Bhola is a French language teacher with over 10 years of experience in school education. A DELF-certified educator pursuing an M.A. in French, he advocates for multilingual education, student choice, and meaningful language-learning opportunities.)

(All 'My Report' branded stories are submitted by citizen journalists to The Quint and the views expressed above are the citizen journalist's own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

The agriculture-specific ask was precise: reduce chemical fertiliser consumption by half and shift towards natural farming, framed explicitly as a way to save foreign currency.

This clearly shows how the country’s food sovereignty is becoming increasingly constrained by energy geopolitics.

The New Drivers of Food Insecurity in India

Even as the Kharif season approaches and the government assures farmers of adequate stocks, 2026 is shaping up to be a particularly difficult year for farmers and agribusinesses, with multiple climate-related stresses converging at once:

• Erratic weather patterns: El Niño conditions and recurring western disturbances are already affecting harvests.

• Extreme heat stress: Large parts of north and central India are witnessing prolonged heatwaves and wet-bulb conditions.

• Poor monsoon outlook: Forecasts by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) and Skymet Weather suggest below-normal rainfall this year, potentially making it one of the driest monsoon seasons in the last eight years.

• Rising risk of extreme events: Floods, cyclones, pest attacks, and other extreme weather events expected later in the year are likely to deepen existing vulnerabilities within India’s food system.

On top of all this, global supply chain disruptions have halted imports and exports, driven up crude oil prices, and triggered cascading shortages of LPG, petrochemicals, and fertilisers.

Until now, the natural farming discourse had always focused on agroecology, soil health, biodiversity, farmer wellbeing, and sustainability. But the PM's austerity speech positioned natural farming as a geopolitical and economic-security strategy.

It is also critical to understand future governance models, evolving food politics, and state-society relations in India.

The rationale goes like this: lower use of chemical fertilisers reduces import dependence, which in turn cuts subsidy burdens and foreign exchange outflows, ultimately increasing resilience to global shocks.

Moreover, the West Asia war has exposed market and storage constraints that are resulting in crop losses during transit and reducing incomes.

Export disruptions have affected states like Punjab, Maharashtra, Kerala and Haryana, which rely on premium agricultural markets. These losses cannot be compensated for in domestic markets due to their inability to absorb the surplus or provide the expected premium prices.

Increased Frequency of Extreme Weather Events

On the evening of 14 May, dust storms across north India, and particularly Uttar Pradesh, killed more than 100 people, ripped through harvested chickpea fields, shredded mango orchards, and destroyed homes.

Earlier this March-April, farmers across north India witnessed Rabi crops like wheat, mustard, pigeon pea, chickpea, and floriculture crops like marigold flatten under unseasonal rain and hailstorms just weeks before harvest.

These dust storms, lightning, unseasonal heavy rains, and hailstorms triggered have also disrupted the Zaid sowing season.

Zaid crops—grown between Rabi and Kharif seasons, such as moong dal, urad dal, cucumber, watermelon, bitter gourd, muskmelon and fodder grains—often act as a buffer for farmers.

Due to their shorter crop duration and the peak summer demand they coincide with, these crops become even more critical, offering additional financial returns to farmers. Hence, farmers who have suffered Rabi losses cannot afford to miss the Zaid window. But the delays in sowing compress the growing period and directly impact yields.

Zaid farmers also have to be vigilant about residual moisture from unpredictable rainfall, as it could trigger fungal disease in crops.

Despite improvements, India continues to lose a significant share of produce to post-harvest inefficiencies, pointing to persistent gaps in storage and cold-chain infrastructure.

The Fertiliser Crisis, Inflation, and the Ripple Effect on Farming

India is the world’s second-largest consumer of fertilisers after China, making fertilisers a critical input for its agricultural system. Reports suggest that India is now importing nearly 25 million tonnes of urea at prices almost double what it was paying just a few months ago.

India’s fertiliser imports are also under significant pressure due to West Asia war.

While ensuring fertiliser availability remains crucial, the crisis has also exposed the need for a broader shift in agricultural practices.

There are three major chemical fertilisers commonly used in India: urea, Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MOP).

Among these, urea accounts for the highest consumption largely because it is heavily subsidised. DAP and MOP, by contrast, fall under the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) scheme, in which the Central government fixes subsidy rates while market prices determine the remaining cost.

A 45 kg bag of urea currently has a statutorily fixed Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of Rs 242. Without subsidies, however, the same bag would cost farmers nearly Rs 2,200.

The gap between the actual delivered cost and the market price is reimbursed by the government to manufacturers and importers as subsidy support.

Despite volatility in global markets, the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers recently announced that the MRP of DAP would remain fixed at Rs 1,350 per 50 kg bag. Yet, reports of hoarding and black marketing have already emerged from several parts of the country, offering an indication of the stress building within the agricultural supply system.

Rising input costs inevitably affect how farmers use fertilisers. Many within the social sector view the present fertiliser crisis as an opportunity to accelerate a transition towards chemical-free or natural farming.

This position is now also being reinforced by the PM and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare through initiatives such as the “Khet Bachao Abhiyan”.

However, a rapid shift away from chemical-intensive farming carries its own risks. Changes in cropping patterns or transitions to low-input agriculture require long-term institutional support, stable markets, extension services and sustained farmer assistance. Without such support systems, abrupt transitions could further strain already vulnerable farming communities.

The consequences are not limited to agriculture alone. Rising fertiliser and fuel costs eventually feed into food prices, shaping household living standards and influencing policy responses.

Even if inflation appears contained in the short term, sustained increases in farm input costs are likely to push food inflation higher in the coming quarters.

Taken together, fertiliser shortages during the Kharif season, stress from the Rabi and Zaid cycles, prolonged heatwaves, below-average rainfall forecasts and broader inflationary pressures are expected to affect crop yields and deepen concerns around India’s food security.

Volatile Climate, Labour Stress and the Changing Rural Workforce

Heatwaves and extreme weather events have, unfortunately, become frequent shocks for Indian farmers. What makes this year different, however, is the simultaneity of these crises and the cascading effects they are triggering across the agricultural economy.

India is experiencing one of its warmest years on record, with heatwaves becoming longer, more intense and more frequent. These conditions are placing severe physiological stress on crops, livestock and fisheries, while also accelerating soil moisture loss.

Extreme heat is also reducing labour productivity (working hours), particularly in labour-intensive agricultural operations such as paddy cultivation that employ millions of farm workers.

This is especially significant in the Indian context, where a large proportion of cultivators are sharecroppers, contract farmers or smallholders with marginal landholdings. As a result, many farmers simultaneously function as wage labourers during different phases of the agricultural cycle.

Farmers doing only two crop cycles (Rabi and Kharif) are forced to take up factory work, MNREGA (now VB-RAM-G), or other minimal jobs during summer months to keep their families afloat.

At the same time, labour shortages are creating additional pressure on the farm economy.

Agriculturally prosperous states such as Punjab, Haryana, and Gujarat, which rely heavily on migrant workers, are facing disruptions in labour availability.

Reverse and distress migration—partly driven by rising living costs and LPG-related insecurities—has interrupted established labour flows. In response, farmers and agri-enterprises are being forced to offer higher wages to retain workers, even as their own margins continue to shrink.

The Skymet and IMD's prediction of ‘below normal rainfall’ adds to the worries of farmers, as monsoon rainfall provides up to 80 percent of the annual precipitation in India.

This is worrying not only for Kharif crops, but also for the Rabi season later in the year, since rainfall levels will determine the health of reservoirs, groundwater, and other irrigation sources.

Adding to these concerns are rising diesel prices and reported fuel shortages across parts of the country, both of which increase cultivation and irrigation costs for farmers.

However, the crisis extends beyond crop farmers. According to government estimates, nearly 55 percent of India’s population is engaged in agriculture and allied sectors i.e poultry, livestock, fisheries, beekeeping, forestry and plantation work. For these communities, extreme heat reduces livestock productivity, increases fish mortality, and degrades ecosystems that sustain livelihoods.

Rising input costs and climate variability further destabilises these fragile income systems.

India Needs a Systemic Reset in Agriculture Policy

Although the current crisis has been triggered by geopolitical instability, it is also an opportunity for India to reassess and re-strategise its agriculture and food systems. The country needs a more integrated approach, one that connects farm-level interventions with markets, finance, labour policy and climate adaptation, rather than treating each of these as isolated sectors.

Both short-term and long-term measures are necessary. In the immediate term, ensuring the availability of fertilisers and other critical agri-food inputs during periods of global volatility must remain a priority.

This would require diversifying import sources, building strategic buffer stocks, expanding domestic production capacity, improving storage infrastructure and ensuring transparent allocation systems that prevent hoarding and distress sales.

Over the longer term, India will need sustained investment in climate-resilient agricultural systems.

This includes,

• Accelerating the adoption of indigenous and climate-resilient crop varieties.

• Encouraging diversification, and expanding scientific cultivation techniques, such as the System of Rice Intensification, particularly for water-intensive crops like paddy.

• Integrated water and nutrient management practices—including precision agriculture, mulching, micro-irrigation, and the restoration of traditional water bodies such as lakes and wells.

Rural employment programmes such as VB-RAM-G could potentially support some of this restoration work.

Equally critical is addressing labour vulnerabilities through stronger social protection measures and workforce stabilisation policies. These could include extending public employment or cash-for-work programmes during peak agricultural seasons, introducing heat-safety protocols, and enabling more flexible working hours during extreme weather conditions.

The overlapping crises facing Indian agriculture are a reminder that agricultural risks are no longer seasonal or isolated. Climate shocks, geopolitical instability, labour insecurity and inflation are now deeply interconnected.

Responding to them will require a balanced approach—one that enables long-term systemic transformation while ensuring that transitions remain manageable for farmers.

Today, farmers are being asked to invest more, work under increasingly harsh conditions and absorb growing levels of uncertainty, often without adequate institutional support. The absence of coordinated public investment in climate-adapted infrastructure, risk-sharing mechanisms and rural resilience must be urgently addressed if India is to build a more secure and sustainable food system.

(Rohin Kumar is an author, roving journalist, climate campaigner and filmmaker attempting to chronicle issues related to environmental justice and human rights. This is an opinion piece. The views expressed above are the authors' own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)

India’s “venerable” Election Commission (EC) coined an Einsteinian, tech-heavy phrase—“logical discrepancy”—to inject turbulence into West Bengal’s Assembly polls. If Albert Einstein confounded the world with his Theory of Relativity, i.e., that time is not a constant but the fourth dimension that elapses differently for bodies moving at variable speeds, our EC came up with an equally astonishing Theory of Ineligibility, i.e., that citizenship is not a permanent right but one that can be interpreted differently for bodies that are “logically discrepant” with respect to the electoral rolls of circa 2002-03.

How did it play out on the ground? Quite whimsically, I dare say. If my father had spelt his name as Behl in 2002, but I had switched to the spiffier B’a’hl, I would be “logically disqualified”! Even if I had not changed the spelling, but my BLO made a typo while uploading my details, I would still be stripped of my voting rights!!

Now see what would happen to my poor father. Since my grandparents were rather fecund, my dad had six siblings in 2002. No fault of his, or any of my uncles and aunts, but the EC would declare them “logical outliers”. Seven God-fearing, honest people robbed of voting rights! 

If you think the algo spared my mother, think again. Her father—my maternal grandfather—is somewhat forgetful and dyslexic. He wrote his year of birth as 1997, instead of 1927. Should the heavens fall if a nonagenarian mistakenly writes 9 instead of 2? But heavens did fall, because the EC’s algo struck off everybody in my mother’s family.

Why? Because the age difference between my grandfather and my mother was less than 15 years, and between the old man and my nephews and nieces was less than 40 years.

Wham! Nearly a dozen people were removed from the electoral rolls merely because an old man wrote '9' when he should have written '2'.

SIR’s Cruel, Algorithmic 'Logic'    

You would be excused for thinking I’ve cracked cruel jokes above. Yes, it’s a fictional story, but a highly plausible one. Because the EC’s “logical discrepancy” algorithm used exactly similar reasoning for banishing over 1.36 crore Bengali voters off the electoral rolls. Some fought their way back via adjudication, but over 30 lakh continued to languish, disenfranchised by an “illogical” computer. 

Until now, ten states and three union territories have suffered through the innocent-sounding Special Intensive Revision, or SIR, process. And the impact has been a sweeping damnation! Nearly 5.68 crore out of 58.41 crore voters—AN ASTONISHING TEN PERCENT—have been declared persona non grata. That’s the staggering first count, and only a few lakh have managed to subsequently establish that they exist in flesh and blood.  

Some of the data points are beyond belief. Over 2 crore voters, or 13.21 percent, have been obliterated in Uttar Pradesh; over 68 lakh, or 13.4 percent, have become apparitions in Gujarat; even tiny Goa is left bewildered at how 1.27 lakh revelers are mere ghosts who walk those lovely beaches. And this is barely half the story. Almost 40 crore voters in 17 states and five union territories are yet to be covered in Phase III.

Ek Sau Tees (130), Or Ek Sau Chalis (140) Crore Indians?

Here’s an existential question that will haunt the upcoming exercise in Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Ladakh, to name just a few territories—in sync with the earlier trend, will another 10 percent, i.e., 4 crore voters, dissolve, phantom-like, into the acid of SIR?

Such an existential question should compel every right-thinking Indian to pause… and confront the sheer “illogical discrepancy” of the spooky, non-existent voters “caught” by the EC’s SIR. But I haven’t heard anybody in EC or GOI (Government of India) ask a devastating question—if 10 percent of adult Indians have vanished from electoral rolls, shouldn’t our total population be reduced by an equal number?

So tomorrow, when PM Modi roars his signature slogan, shouldn’t he be saying “ek sau tees (not chalis) crore Hindustani”?

Think about it. India’s adult, 18 years+ population is estimated at 102.7 crore. In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, 96.88 crore voters were registered, i.e., a seemingly efficient 94.33 percent coverage, which was a feather in the EC’s cap.

But then SIR destroyed 5.68 crore voters in two phases—and if the rate of destruction stays uniform in the third phase, another 4 crore voters could vamoose, leaving a terrible enigma for the EC-GOI duo to grapple with: 

• Total adult population—102.7 crore 

• Total voters on the “SIR-cleansed” rolls—87 crore (10 percent less than 96.88 crore) 

• Total number of Indian adults who would have gotten ghosted—over 15 crore!!

SIR’s 'Logical Discrepancy' Vs 'Illogical Conundrum'   

Since the EC loves this phraseology, here’s an “illogical conundrum” that they must answer: our current population estimate is based on the census number of 2011 multiplied by several scientifically determined demographic variables like births, deaths, fertility, mortality, and migration rates. And these scientific equations tell us that 15 crore adult Indians have disappeared after the EC’s SIR.

Why? How is that possible? 

• Did many more adults die during the COVID-19 pandemic than were captured in data points?

• Since births are now well documented, that’s difficult to fudge, right? 

• So, have 15 crore more adults left the country via dunki routes? If yes, then immigration policing across the globe is idiotic or complicit or both at an unbelievable scale! 

• Or will phase III SIR throw up nearly 15 percent additional voters? That is, SIR will turn on its head, discovering an astonishing number of new voters in these territories, pointing towards an unprecedented scale of internal migration?

Since the EC loves to speak “logically”, it’s clear that none of the above “conundrums” provide a clue or explanation of where 15 crore adult Indians have vanished.  

In fact, the singular, inescapable conclusion is as follows: The EC’s “SIR-cleansed” rolls could have, unfortunately, ended up excluding an exceptionally large number—OVER FIFTEEN CRORE—of eligible Indian adults!

It’s a disheartening, tragic QED.