21st February globally observed as International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day has been observed globally on 21 february since February 2000. The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language, cultural diversity and multilingualism all across the world.

UNESCO is celebrating International Mother Language Day 2020 under the theme “Languages without borders.”

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh 21 February is the anniversary of the day when Bangladeshis fought for recognition for the Bangla language.

As per the data on un.org “at least 43% of the estimated 6000 languages spoken in the world are endangered. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world.” Globalisation is one of the factors to blame for increasing threat various languages are under and all of us should strive to save the linguistic diversity of our region, our nation and our world.