International Mother Language Day 2019 - Check Facts About Mother Language Day Here! 2019/02/20

Cultural and linguistic diversity are the pillars of a sustainable future. According to UNESCO (headquartered in Paris), 40 per cent of the people do not have access to the education in their mother tongue. Language is the vehicle that carries culture across generations. Languages are an integral part of one’s identity. International Mother Language Day is celebrated throughout the World on 21st February to honor the various Mother Languages. Read this article to know in detail about International Mother Language Day, Importance of Mother Language, International Mother Language Day Theme 2019, Endangered Languages and more!

Why is International Mother Language Day celebrated?

The idea to celebrate International Mother Languages Day was mooted by Bangladesh in 1999. UNESCO General Assembly passed this initiative and 21^stFebruary has been celebrated as International Mother Language Day since 2000 to promote linguistic diversity and multilingual education.

Importance of Mother Language

• Knowledge – Indigenous knowledge has unique world views and look at society and its relationship with nature.
• Peace – Peace building and reconciliation
• Rights – Freedom for Indigenous people (cultural right)
• Diversity– multi-linguistic society has multiple world views and cultural values

International Mother Language Day Theme 2019

2019 theme for International Mother Language Day is

“Indigenous languages matter for development, peace building and reconciliation”

International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) focuses on five key areas: Increasing understanding and international cooperation, Conducive environment creation for knowledge sharing, Integration of indigenous languages, Capacity building of people with indigenous people and Growth and development.

This would not only raise awareness about these indigenous language but also is a way to appreciate their contributing towards making the world a rich diversity.

India and Indigenous Languages

• Schedule 8 of the Constitution of India authorizes 22 languages as official languages of India.
• Article 350A facilitates for instruction in mother tongue for the primary education.
• Article 30 states the that religious and linguistic minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institution.

Endangered Languages

• UNESCO has identified 42 Indian languages in its critically endangered language list.
• These languages are spoken by less than 10,000 people.
• These languages mostly belong to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups(PVTGs) and are considered to be endangered because of their declining number of speakers and their isolation.
• Some of such PVTGs are- Jarawa, Onge, Pu, Sentilese, Shompen of Andaman and Nicobar; Toda of Tamil Nadu; Birhor of Jharkhand, etc. These tribes and their language have the same name.

Internet and Language

• Cyberspace in India has information asymmetry as content availability is mostly in English.
• Google’s GLOW(Growing Local Language Content on Wikipedia) initiative is a key driver in promoting and create an enabling environment for local language.
• Recently, Facebook has also launched Digital Literacy Libraryin six Indian Languages- Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Telegu and Malayalam.
• India is a burgeoning market of data users and local language content on internet would give digital economy a major boost as the idea is not to constrain internet to English-speaking elites 

  Facts To Remember
  1.	According to People’s Linguistic Survey of India, India has 780 languages spoken today while it has lost 50 languages have extinct in the past five decades.
  2.	Indian government officially recognizes 122 (22 scheduled + 100 non-scheduled) languages as government data allows to disclose names of only those languages which are spoken by more than 10,000 people.
  3.	The idea of language as a cultural right of the group is implicit in the charter Sustainable Development Goals 2030, to which India is a signatory.
  4.	Bharatvani Project of Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore digitization of 60 languages have been made so far free of charge as a part of Digital India.
  5.	2019 is declared as International Year of Indigenous Languages (IYIL) by United Nations.
  6.	Universal Declaration of Linguistic Rights or Barcelona Declaration is a document signed by NGOs and PEN International and NGOs in 1996. Although this did not receive approval of UNESCO.