Mother Language Day is being organized by UNESCO across the world since 2000 to explain the importance of linguistic diversity. The announcement to celebrate this day was made on November 17, 1999. This day also highlights the long struggle made by Bangladesh to protect its mother tongue Bengali.
The idea of celebrating 21 February as International Mother Language Day was suggested by Rafiqul Islam, a Bangladeshi living in Canada. The objective of this initiative is to protect the diverse cultural and intellectual heritage of different regions of the world and to preserve and promote mother languages.
According to UNESCO, about seven thousand languages are spoken in the world but it is estimated that in India alone there are more than 19,500 languages or dialects, which are spoken as mother tongue.
In the era of globalization, it has become necessary to learn foreign languages, but whatever be the mother tongue, like Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Bhojpuri, Maithili, Angika, Santali, Nagpuri, Magahi etc. do not feel humid in public. Also, don't make fun of anyone's mother tongue. Display as much information as possible about your mother tongue, like know the grammar of that language, correct alphabets etc.
According to the United Nations, one language becomes extinct every two weeks and human civilization is losing its entire cultural and intellectual heritage, competition to learn foreign languages for better employment opportunities due to globalization is a major reason for the extinction of mother tongues.