International Mother Language Day: How Bangladesh Showed the Way

February 21 is celebrated as International Mother Language Day. The root of this celebration is in Bangladesh.

The story begins when Bangladesh was not an independent country. It was part of Pakistan and was known as East Pakistan. The official language of Pakistan was Urdu.

The people of East Pakistan were struggling to make Bangla another official language of Pakistan.

A huge protest was organised by the students of Dhaka University near their campus on February 21, 1952. There was a protest near the Legislative Assembly too.

The police opened fire and many students lost their lives. The result of the movement was, Bangla was recognised as an official language of Pakistan on February 29, 1956.

But the movement did not stop here. Finally, East Pakistan got independence in 1971 and Bangladesh was born.

Since then, February 21 is celebrated as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recognised February 21 as the International Mother Language Day in 1999 and the United Nations accepted it in 2007.

Now, globally it’s recognised that Mother Language is the best for a child’s learning and development.

Keeping this in mind, the Government of India’s National Education Policy 2020 lays emphasis on children’s education in their mother language till class eight.