Government Helplines and Regional Language Accessibility Before the Launch of MyGov

Mohit Bhandari

Independent Researcher

Delhi, India

Abstract
This study examines the accessibility of government helplines for citizens speaking regional languages in India prior to the launch of the MyGov platform in 2014. India’s linguistic diversity poses significant challenges to centralized government services, as monolingual or Hindi/English-centric helpline operations often excluded large population segments. Employing mixed methods—including in-depth content analysis of helpline call-flow designs, semi-structured interviews with service operators, and a large-scale user survey across five linguistically diverse states (Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Odisha)—this research identifies key barriers to effective communication, measures the extent of regional-language support, evaluates call-resolution effectiveness, and assesses overall user satisfaction. Findings reveal that while basic regional-language options existed in roughly 60% of surveyed helplines, most were confined to two-level IVR menus with no live-agent support in local tongues. Only 25% of agents demonstrated adequate fluency to handle complex queries in a regional language, and user satisfaction averaged a low 2.8 on a 5-point scale. Notably, callers with limited formal education or those over 50 years old faced disproportionately greater difficulties, reporting confusion with prerecorded prompts, mistrust in automated systems, and a reluctance to retry calls. Our thematic analysis of operator interviews highlights systemic shortcomings—insufficient language training, outdated telephony software lacking Unicode support, and the absence of user-feedback loops.

Keywords
Government Helplines, Regional Languages, Accessibility, India, Pre-MyGov Era

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