Oxfam’s CEO defended an inclusive language guide provided to workers, which recommends against using terms like “mother and father” or “people.”
On Friday’s Good Morning Britain, charity CEO Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah was questioned about the pamphlet, which made headlines for caution against using terms with colonial connotations and phrases that appear to be exclusive.
Staff are urged in the handbook to avoid using phrases like ‘youth’ and ‘the elderly,’ and the pamphlet was initially written in English, ‘the language of a colonising country.’
The change has sparked debate, however others have pointed out that the phrase “parent or guardian” has long been used in place of “mother or father,” for example, in schools, where some children may not have a mother or father.
CEO Dhananjayan went on GMB on Friday and was grilled by hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard, with the former calling the charity’s sensitivity “laudable.”
However she added: ‘It feels like sort of, wokeness gone mad. That’s what people are saying, that’s what they’re worried about.’
Kate stated that individuals had given to the charity to help those in need as a result of Oxfam’s “amazing” work, and she asked Dhananjayan if he could tell viewers how much the guide cost to prepare.
The CEO claimed he couldn’t tell how much it cost, but that it was a “very minimal expense” because it was “an update to an existing guide.”
He stated that throughout Oxfam’s 80 years of charitable work, “the how counts as much as the what.”
‘We work in diverse communities all across the world, and we’ve learned that if we’re going to end poverty we have to take everyone with us – and using inclusive language is an important way of showing dignity and respect for people we work with.’
Ben reacted by adding that GMB viewers were ‘not taken with you’ when they turned to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction with the pamphlet, and questioned, ‘What is wrong about terms like headquarters, like mother?’
Dhananjayan said that this was not unusual, since “a lot of paperwork already say parent or guardian, they don’t mention mother or father.”
As for the description of English being a colonial language, he said: ‘It’s a fact that English was spread across the world though colonialism,’ but Oxfam is ‘a proud manifestation of British internationalism and kindness.’
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays from 6am on ITV