Kathmandu, February 21. The International Mother Language Day is being marked today by organizing several programmes.

February 21 has been marked as the International Mother Language Day since 2000 after the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared the day in 1999. The declaration came up in tribute to the language movement done by the Bangladeshis (then the East Pakistanis).

Nepal has also started observing the International Mother Language Day in a special manner since 2000. A study has revealed that in every 15 days two languages are being disappeared in the world.

In order to preserve and protect mother languages, especially the disappearing ones, the Nepal Academy, Language Commission and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are jointly organizing a festival of poetry in mother language as well as cultural procession of different ethnic communities today.

The host organizations stressed the need for the stakeholders’ groups to work together to protect disappearing mother languages. On the occasion, the three organizations hosted a talk programme entitled ‘Mother Language and Mother Language Literature’ on Sunday.

Four working papers were presented on the occasion. It was shared that 23 out of 37 languages having less than 1,000 speakers are on verge of extinction. The speakers univocally underlined the need to work for the protection dnd preservation of the languages in crisis. RSS