Q. Consider the following statements with respect to languages in India:
1. India has the largest number of endangered languages in the world as per UNESCO’s ‘Atlas of The World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing.
2. The Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages is monitored by the Ministry of Culture.
Which of the above given statements is/are correct?
Exp) Option a is the correct answer.
UNESCO has recognized India as one of the most linguistically diverse countries. As per census 2011, more than 19,500 languages or dialects are spoken in India as mother tongues while only 121 languages are spoken by 10,000 or more people. This shows the quantum of endangered languages in India.
Statement 1 is correct: There are 197 languages in India whose survival is in peril. This is the largest number for any country in the world, going by UNESCO’s Atlas of The World’s Languages in Danger of Disappearing.
Statement 2 is incorrect: Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL): It started with a short-term goal of providing a grammar, dictionary and ethnolinguistic sketch for 117 languages that have 10,000 or fewer speakers. In the long term, it aspires to cover around 500 languages in the future. The scheme is monitored by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) (under the Ministry of Education), located in Mysuru, Karnataka.
