#85: International Mother Languages Day
Only resource you need for UPSC Mains and Pre on this topic
UNESCO celebrates Feb 21 as Int'l Mother Language Day (IMLD)✨
Here's all you need to know about IMLD for #UPSC #Prelims & Mains💪🏻
Theme 2023
'Multilingual education - a necessity to transform education'
Purpose & Aim
- In response to declining state of many languages all over the world
- Protect diverse culture & intellectual heritage of diff regions
"1 language disappears every 2 weeks"- UN
Globalization + rush for foreign jobs = disappearance of mother tongue
History
- declared on 21 Feb 1999
- Day commemorates struggle of Bangladeshis to protect their mother tongue: Bangla
Global Efforts
- 2022-2032: Int'l decade of Indigenous Languages
- Yuelu Proclamation: related to protecting linguistic resources & diversity
Indian Efforts
- NEP '20 advocates education in one's mother tongue right from primary school
- AICTE to permit B.Tech in 11 native languages
- GoI offers prominence to native languages in employment & job creation
- SSC to conduct exams in 13 languages (other than Hin/Eng)
- SC to make verdicts accessible in all Indian languages
- Bharatvani Project: to set up Bharatiya Bhasha Vishwavidyalaya (BBV)
- National Translation Mission (NTM) via Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore to translate many textbooks in all languages under 8th schedule
- "Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages" scheme for conservation of threatened languages
- UGC to Governors/CMs: "Give fillip to promote mother tongue education in colleges & universities"
Constitutional Mandate & Legal efforts
- Article 29:No discrimination against linguistic minorities
- Article 120: MPs have right to express self in mother tongue
- Article 350A: Primary instruction in mother tongue
- Article 350B: Officer for linguistic minorities
- 8th schedule: 22 languages
- Right to Education 2009: "Medium of instruction shall, as far as practicable, be in child's mother tongue"
Way Forward
- Hasten the process of content creation in mother languages
- Leverage tech to drive development of new texts and related materials in native languages
Quotes
1. "The foreign medium has made our children practically foreigners in their own land" - Mahatma Gandhi
2. “We must teach science in our mother tongue. Otherwise, science will become a highbrow activity. It will not be an activity in which all people can participate.” - CV Raman
3. “Mother tongue is eyesight while other languages are a spectacle; spectacles can function properly only if there's eyesight” - Venkaiah Naidu
4. “The languages we learn from our mothers are the homeland of our innermost thoughts” - Koichiro Matsura
Hi, at @CSEWhy I invite you to support me! You can do that in three simple ways:
Become a blog contributor and have your write ups featured on my blog. Write me an email if you’d want to be a contributor at whycse@gmail.com
Share the link to this post on your WhatsApp story
-OR- Contribute a small amount (Pay What You Want) by clicking here (I send a valuable gift to everyone who makes a contribution)
To find links to my Twitter, Telegram, YouTube and Podcast Visit my Website
