Languages are the best vehicles of mutual understanding and tolerance. Respect for all languages is a key factor for ensuring peaceful coexistence, without exclusion, of societies and all of their members’ emphasised Irina Bokova, director-general of Unesco, on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day.

The International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the Unesco in November 1999. This event has been observed every year since its creation to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
Languages are powerful instruments for preserving and developing culture. New information and communication technologies (ICT) can serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to raise awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on mutual understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
In India, in particular, there is a Multilingual Education (MLE) Programme being run in two states — Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. Besides these two states, Chhattisgarh has also started MLE programme in 2010 in seven languages. The textbooks have been prepared to create an awareness and understanding among children of the world around them and its functioning.
Today, less than one hundred languages are represented in the digital world. Language presence in cyberspace is insufficient in view of the increased importance of the role of cyberspace for access to education and information, and the construction of inclusive knowledge societies.
I would like here to emphasise specifically the importance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in promoting mother languages. We must harness and protect diverse visions of the world and actively promote all sources of knowledge and forms of expression. These are the threads that weave the tapestry of humanity’s story.
Mother languages, along with linguistic diversity, matter for the identity of individuals. As sources of creativity and vehicles for cultural expression, they are also important for the health of societies. Studies and researches show that use of mother language at initial stage of education would enhance children’s comprehension skills. We know how important education in the mother language is for learning outcomes. Mother language instruction is also a powerful way to fight discrimination and reach out to marginalised populations.
The Internet is a major opportunity to improve the free flow of information and ideas throughout the world. Committed to building inclusive knowledge societies, Unesco is actively engaged in efforts to improve cultural and linguistic diversity on the Internet and broaden access to information for all. The annual celebration of the International Year of Languages by the Unesco (2008) was an occasion to attract policymakers’ attention and public opinion to the strategic relevance of languages and linguistic policies for development.
As a result of the celebration of the International Mother Language Day and similar initiatives across the world, today an increasing number of people are able to access and use the Internet in their own scripts and languages. The relationship between languages on the Internet and diversity of languages within a country indicates that countries have an important role to play in adopting an appropriate linguistic policy for the Internet.
India is a good example in this direction, being a multi-lingual and multi-script country. The Government of India recognises and supports universal access to Internet as an instrument for realisation of human rights. Therefore, it made special efforts to develop tools for information processing in local languages and made them available at low cost for wider proliferation of ICT to benefit the people at large.
To this end, the department of information technology, Government of India, reported to the Unesco in 2007 that it has initiated a programme of technology development for Indian languages with the objective to develop information processing tools to facilitate human machine interaction in Indian languages and to allow access to multilingual knowledge resources and content.
In 2009, the Unesco published a research study titled “Twelve Years of Measuring Linguistic Diversity in the Internet: Balance and Perspectives”, which presents a variety of methods used over 12 years to measure linguistic diversity on the Internet. In this study, the Unesco took an approach of statistics and measurements that goes beyond a techno-centric view to consider the importance of content and the enabling environment, while at the same time acknowledged limitations in measuring culture and content represented on the Internet. The primary objective of the Unesco’s study was to sensitise the civil society to the theme of linguistic diversity in cyberspace. The study was a plea for the production of more local content since first and foremost Internet fosters communication between humans and allows them to obtain and exchange meaningful information. It also raised the question about the imperative that all users worldwide should be able to find Internet content which is meaningful to them and is in local languages.
We are witnessing a growing awareness that languages play a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, but also in attaining quality education for all and strengthening cooperation, in building inclusive knowledge societies and preserving cultural heritage, and in mobilising political will for applying the benefits of science and technology to sustainable development.
It is thus urgent to take action to encourage broad and international commitment to promoting multilingualism and linguistic diversity, including the safeguarding of endangered languages The diversity of linguistic sites on the net is overwhelming. Nowadays, there are many professionals working to create software for translation of original texts and for translation of found pages, to provide solutions for the major obstacle for global communication. Quite recently there were only few programmes for translation of the major languages, but more new ones appear allowing to switch not only between the languages using the same script, but also between different systems of writing.
In this context, I would like to mention, in particular, the Microsoft Local Language Programme, which provides people’s access to technology in a familiar language while respecting linguistic and cultural distinctions. The program aims to empower individuals in local communities to create economic opportunities, build IT skills, enhance education outcomes, and sustain their local language and culture.
Browsing and search tools of the net are becoming multilingual too. For instance, AltaVista allows searching in 25 languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Hebrew, and Korean. New software is developed allowing conducting searches in ones native language across the websites.
The date of February 21, 2012, that of the International Mother Language Day, provides a particularly appropriate deadline for the introduction of initiatives to promote languages.
Whether it be through initiatives in the fields of education, cyberspace or the literate environment; be it through projects to safeguard endangered languages or to promote languages as a tool for social integration; the important message is that languages matter and this should be promoted everywhere.
Our common goal is to ensure the linguistic diversity and multilingualism in educational, administrative and legal systems, cultural expressions and the media, cyberspace and trade, is recognised by all beyond borders.
The author is a director and Unesco representative for Bhutan, India and
the Maldives