RNS: United Nations is planning to establish a multi-donor fund in order to revitalise, preserve, and promote ancient and tribal languages all over the world. This will include the revitalization, preservation, and promotion of ancient Indian languages such as Prakrit, Pali, and Sharda, amongst others.
UNESCO’s International Decade of Indigenous Languages programme has launched a task force co-chaired by Ramesh Gaur, Head of Kalanidhi Division at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and Director of the National School of Drama, to translate these languages, as well as other indigenous languages from around the world, into more accessible modern ones in order to preserve and promote them.
Communities and organisations that are not affiliated with any government will have access to the fund. In December, the task force had its ninth meeting, and Gaur, who co-chaired the meeting, stated that all member countries would be implementing a new action plan.
On 22 March, 2021, UNESCO launched a global task team to create a Decade of Action for Indigenous Languages. Canada, Iceland, Norway, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, Australia, India, Thailand, Gambia, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia are among the members.
“There are nearly 1,700 languages in India, out of which there is no data for 949 languages. The fund set up by the UN can be utilised for the digital archiving of the lost languages,” said Gaur.
