(a) whether the Government has taken any steps to promote local languages and dialects ;
(b) if so, the details of the initiatives taken in this regard;
(c) whether several regional and local languages and dialects have been identified in the country; and
(d) if so, the details thereof?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (Dr. D. PURANDESWARI)
(a) to (d): As per the information received from the Office of Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India, it has not recorded any language/mother tongue as ‘local’ or ‘regional’ language/mother tongue in its decennical Population Census. The term “local languages’ is also not used for work undertaken on languages by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, a Subordinate Office under the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The CIIL, Mysore, established for developing Indian languages, implements several projects/schemes for promotion of Indian languages including Tribal and endangered languages like Projects on “Dimensions of Language Endangermentâ€, North Eastern Language Development, Bhasha Mandakini and Language Information Services (LIS). CIIL have undertaken data collection, description, documentation and material production such as pictorial glossaries, grammatical analysis, dictionaries, primers and audio-visual documentations on various languages. In addition, this Ministry has set up a Round Table for protection and preservation of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and Endangered Languages.