International Mother Language Day (21 February): “Multilingual education is a pillar of intergenerational learning” – Unesco

2024 celebrations

*The United Nations General Assembly designates a number of “International Days” to mark important aspects of human life and history* | Official list >>
International Day of the World’s Indigenous People (9 August) >>

The theme of International Mother Language Day celebration 2024 is “Multilingual education is a pillar of intergenerational learning”. Today, 250 million children and young people still do not attend school and 763 million adults do not master basic literacy skills. Mother tongue education supports learning, literacy and the acquisition of additional languages.

The event organized by UNESCO on 21 February will include two panel discussions on multilingual education as a key component of quality learning.

How to celebrate Mother Language Day in your school | Read the updates here >>

Schoolteachers

Encourage children to use their mother languages to introduce themselves and talk about their families and culture
Celebrate culture by having them read poetry, tell a story or sing a song in their mother tongues. Paintings and drawings with captions in mother languages can also be displayed.

One’s mother tongue is closest to any person as is one’s mother. It is from the mother that a child learns language skills. No mother ever teaches a newborn the rules of grammar; yet all those extremely complicated rules are internalised by the child by merely watching the lip movements and gestures of its mother and by imbibing the tones and textures of her speech. There is a somewhat wrong and widespread impression that children learn languages in school. That may be true of the languages other than the language of one’s home. One has to “learn” through grammar and translation the second or the third language, or more. But, the making of the human brain allows a child to learn most of the complexities of the mother tongue by the time the child is three years old. Writing is another matter. In any case, in the several million years history of Homo sapiens, writing emerged as an apparatus of expression, communication, and memory-storing just about seven thousand years ago. Language is essentially speech; writing is an additional feature that enables long-distance and inter-generational language transactions.
Ganesh Devy in “Languages not liked by Hindutva ideology suffer existential crisis”, Frontline Magazine, 15 June 2023 >>

Publications

See how many mother languages your fellow students speak. Make a survey of the languages by interviewing them and publish the results on internet.
Help organize cultural activities such as films, plays and music that celebrate different languages.

Mother tongue-based multilingual education: the key to unlocking SDG 4: quality Education for All, UNESCO Bangkok, 2017
MTB MLE resource kit: Including the excluded: promoting multilingual education, UNESCO Bangkok, 2016
Literacy in multilingual and multicultural contexts: effective approaches to adult learning and education, UNESCO-UIL, 2016
If you don’t understand, how can you learn?, Global Education Monitoring Report Policy Paper 24, UNESCO, 2016
2016 Global Monitoring Report section on Languages, UNESCO, 2016
UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger

UN and UNESCO resolutions

UNESCO resolution proclaiming “International Mother Language Day” to be observed on 21 February, 1999, following a proposition made by People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Resolution adopted by UN General Assembly on multilingualism(link is external), 2002
Report by UNESCO Director-General on a strategy concerning the role of languages in achieving Education for All (EFA) in the context of sustainable development, 2009
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples(link is external), 2008
Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, 2001
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic Religious and Linguistic Minorities(link is external), 1992

Background

Previous editions: 2017 – 2016 – 2015 – 2014 – 2013 – 2012

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On International Mother Language Day 2018, celebrated every year on 21 February, UNESCO reiterates its commitment to linguistic diversity and invites its Member States to celebrate the day in as many languages as possible as a reminder that linguistic diversity and multilingualism are essential for sustainable development.

UNESCO has been celebrating International Mother Language Day for nearly 20 years with the aim of preserving linguistic diversity and promoting mother tongue-based multilingual education. | Read the full post on the Unesco website >>

Linguistic diversity and multilingual education
Language teaching and particularly multilingual education are a key factor in the development of understanding among peoples and dialogue for peace. Accordingly, during the current biennium, UNESCO has redoubled its activities aimed at promoting linguistic diversity at all levels of education and encouraging the practice of multilingualism. At the same time, it has reinforced its action to protect and enhance the linguistic heritage, especially that of indigenous populations and people belonging to minorities. The LINGUAPAX project has been refocused in such a way as to incorporate these different objectives within a harmonious framework of action. […]

An “International Mother Language Day” launched and to be observed on 21 February. | Learn more >>
Source: Approved Programme and budget, 2000-2001
URL: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000120679.page=184
Date visited: 25 January 2019

Find publications by reputed authors (incl. Open Access)

“[T]he Constitution gives equal respect to all communities, sects, lingual and ethnic groups, etc. The Constitution guarantees to all citizens freedom of speech (Article 19), freedom of religion (Article 25), equality (Articles 14 to 17), liberty (Article 21), etc.” – Supreme Court judgment quoted by The Hindu in “India, largely a country of immigrants” >>

In Marginalised but not Defeated, Tarun Kanti Bose (a seasoned public interest journalist) “documents the hard and difficult struggle to implement the Forest Rights Act, how the oppressed adivasis have united into forest unions, how they are now entering into new thresholds of protracted struggles and victories in a non-violent manner. […] A must for all young journalists, social science students, editors, civil society groups and the academia.” | Read the full book review here:
https://countercurrents.org/2023/05/book-review-marginalised-but-not-defeated >>

Learn more about “The world’s largest democracy“, its Constitution and Supreme Court and linguistic heritage, and why Democracy depends on Accountability in the face of Modernity and Globalization >>

Find up-to-date information provided by, for and about Indian authors, researchers, officials, and educators

List of web portals covered by the present Custom search engine

Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development (ACCORD) – www.accordweb.in

Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) – www.atree.org

Freedom United – www.freedomunited.org

Government of India (all websites ending on “.gov.in”)

Shodhganga (a reservoir of Indian theses) – https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in

Survival International – www.survivalinternational.org

Unesco – https://en.unesco.org

Unesco digital library – https://unesdoc.unesco.org

Unicef – www.unicef.org

United Nations – www.un.org/en

Video Volunteers – www.videovolunteers.org

To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find publishing details for Shodhganga’s PhD search results, click here >>

Search tips

Combine the name of any particular state, language or region with that of any tribal (Adivasi) community.

Add keywords of special interest (health, nutrition endangered language, illegal mining, sacred grove); learn about the rights of Scheduled Tribes such as the “Forest Rights Act” (FRA); and the United Nations “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, “Universal Declaration of Human Rights”, “women’s rights”, or “children’s right to education”.

Specify any other issue or news item you want to learn more about (biodiversity, bonded labour and human trafficking, climate change, ecology, economic development, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, global warming, Himalayan tribe, hunter-gatherers in a particular region or state, prevention of rural poverty, water access).

For official figures include “scheduled tribe ST” along with a union state or region: e.g. “Chhattisgarh ST community”, “Scheduled tribe Tamil Nadu census”, “ST Kerala census”, “Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group Jharkhand”, “PVTG Rajasthan”, “Adivasi ST Kerala”, “Adibasi ST West Bengal” etc.

In case the Google Custom Search window is not displayed here try the following: (1) toggle between “Reader” and regular viewing; (2) in your browser’s Security settings select “Enable JavaScript” | More tips >>

[*] Some clarifications on caste-related issues by reputed scholars

Understanding “caste” in the context of Indian democracy: The “Poona Pact of 1932”
“Mahatma Gandhi and BR Ambedkar differed over how to address caste inequities through the electoral system. Their exchanges led to the Poona Pact of 1932, which shaped the reservation system in India’s electoral politics. […]
Two prominent figures who have significantly contributed to this discourse are Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation, and Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Father of the Constitution. The two stalwarts of Indian politics, while revered equally by the public, had contrasting views on the caste system. Their subsequent debates have shaped the course of Indian society and politics. While Gandhi denounced untouchability, he did not condemn the varna system, a social hierarchy based on occupation, for most of his life. He believed in reforming the caste system through the abolition of untouchability and by giving equal status to each occupation. On the other hand, BR Ambedkar, a Dalit himself, argued that the caste system disorganised and ‘demoralised Hindu society, reducing it to a collection of castes’. […]
And yet, despite their differences, they developed an understanding to work for the betterment of the marginalised.” – Rishabh Sharma in “How Ambedkar and Gandhi’s contrasting views paved way for caste reservation” (India Today, 6 October 2023)
URL: https://www.indiatoday.in/history-of-it/story/ambedkar-gandhi-caste-system-poona-pact-1932-reservation-2445208-2023-10-06

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“That upper caste groups should declare themselves to be OBCs [Other Backward Castes] and want to avail of the reservation policy is a pandering to caste politics of course, as also are caste vote-banks. It is partially a reflection of the insecurity that the neo-liberal market economy has created among the middle-class. Opportunities are limited, jobs are scarce and so far ‘development’ remains a slogan. There’s a lot that is being done to keep caste going in spite of saying that we are trying to erode caste. We are, of course, dodging the real issue. It’s true that there has been a great deal of exploitation of Dalit groups and OBC’s in past history; making amends or even just claiming that we are a democracy based on social justice demands far more than just reservations. The solution lies in changing the quality of life of half the Indian population by giving them their right to food, water, education, health care, employment, and social justice. This, no government so far has been willing to do, because it means a radical change in governance and its priorities.” – Romila Thapar (Emeritus Professor of History, Jawaharlal Nehru University) interviewed by Nikhil Pandhi (Caravan Magazine, 7 October 2015)
URL: https://caravanmagazine.in/vantage/discipline-notion-particular-government-interview-romila-thapar

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“Casteism is the investment in keeping the hierarchy as it is in order to maintain your own ranking, advantage, privilege, or to elevate yourself above others or keep others beneath you …. For this reason, many people—including those we might see as good and kind people—could be casteist, meaning invested in keeping the hierarchy as it is or content to do nothing to change it, but not racist in the classical sense, not active and openly hateful of this or that group.” – Book review by Dilip Mandal for Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (The Print, 23 August 2020)
URL: https://theprint.in/opinion/oprah-winfrey-wilkerson-caste-100-us-ceos-indians-wont-talk-about-it/487143/

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“The theoretical debate on caste among social scientists has receded into the background in recent years. [However] caste is in no sense disappearing: indeed, the present wave of neo-liberal policies in India, with privatisation of enterprises and education, has strengthened the importance of caste ties, as selection to posts and educational institutions is less based on merit through examinations, and increasingly on social contact as also on corruption. There is a tendency to assume that caste is as old as Indian civilization itself, but this assumption does not fit our historical knowledge. To be precise, however, we must distinguish between social stratification in general and caste as a specific form. […]
From the early modern period till today, then, caste has been an intrinsic feature of Indian society. It has been common to refer to this as the ‘caste system’. But it is debatable whether the term ‘system’ is appropriate here, unless we simply take for granted that any society is a ‘social system’. First, and this is quite clear when we look at the history of distinct castes, the ‘system’ and the place various groups occupy within it have been constantly changing. Second, no hierarchical order of castes has ever been universally accepted […] but what is certain is that there is no consensus on a single hierarchical order.” – Harald Tambs-Lyche (Professor Emeritus, Université de Picardie, Amiens) in “Caste: History and the Present” (Academia Letters, Article 1311, 2021), pp. 1-2
URL: https://www.academia.edu/49963457

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“There is a need for intercultural education. We all need to work together to bridge these divides not only between religions and castes but also regions. It is not correct to think that one part is better than the other. Some of the limitations of India as a whole are due to our common heritage, say the one that has restricted women from having a flourishing life for themselves.” – Prof. V. Santhakumar (Azim Premji University) in “On the so called North-South Divide in India” (personal blog post in Economics in Action, 13 April 2024)
URL: https://vsanthakumar.wordpress.com/2024/04/13/on-the-so-called-north-south-divide-in-india/