NEWS

Every year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrates 21st February as International Mother Language Day to promote mother tongue-based multilingual education since 2000.

DETAILS

• Theme for 2022 — “Using Technology for Multilingual Learning: Challenges and Opportunities”
• Declared in 1999
• Also commemorates a long struggle by Bangladesh to protect its mother language Bangla
• Day was suggested by Rafiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi living in Canada

OTHER DATA

• According to the Language Census, whose findings were widely reported in 2018, India is home to 19,500 languages or dialects, of which 121 languages are spoken by 10,000 or more people in our country
• 196 Indian languages which fall under the “endangered” category