Rajasthan govt to replace ‘negative’ student names with meaningful ones

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan government is preparing to change the names of school students through a new initiative called Sarthak Naam Abhiyan. The aim of the scheme is to replace names that are considered derogatory or meaningless with more meaningful ones.

Names such as Shaitan, Sheru, Tinku, and Kalu will be changed. The government has instructed that students should be given names with positive meanings. According to officials, unclear or negative names can affect a child’s confidence.

The education department has released a list of 3,000 suggested names for students. This includes 1,409 names for boys and 1,541 names for girls. Some of the suggested names are Bal Mukund, Badrinath, Aaradhya, Annapurna, Vaishnavi, Abheer, and Agnibh.

The names of students from Class 1 to Class 9 will be changed with the consent of their parents. The department said that the plan will be explained in meetings with parents and teachers. If parents agree to the name change, written permission will be collected.