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The
decision to observe 21st February as the International Mother Language Day was
unanimously taken at the 30th General Conference of the UNESCO held on November
17, 1999.
There is a brief background behind this
resolution.
Bangladesh officially sent a
proposal to UNESCO requesting the world body to adopt a Resolution declaring
21st February as International Mother Language Day. The Language Division of
UNESCO marked the proposal from the Government of Bangladesh as the Draft
Resolution -35 and sent the same to Commission-2 for consideration. The
Commission unanimously recommended
the proposal for presentation at the Plenary Session of the General Conference of the UNESCO. This proposal
from Bangladesh was seconded by
Ivory Coast, Italy, Indonesia, Iran, Oman, Comoros, Gambia, Chile, Dominican
Republic, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, the Philippines, the Bahamas,
Benin, Belarus, Vanuatu, India, Micronesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Russia, Lithonia,
Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Surinam, Slovakia and Honduras. After that, on November
17, 1999, 21st February was declared in the General Conference as the
International Mother Language Day.
It
may be mentioned here that "
Gaffargaon Theatre" under Mymensing district in Bangladesh had in 1997, in a
booklet published on the eve of
21st February, raised the
"demand for declaration of an International Mother Language Day and for the
International recognition of 21st February."
There is an Organization
named "Mother Language Lovers of the World" in Canada. There are ten English,
Kutchi, Cantonese, German, Filipino, Bengali and Hindi speaking members in that
organization. In 1999 they urged the UNO and the UNESCO to declare 21st February
as the International Mother Language Day. The UNESCO in reply informed them that
such proposal could only be considered if it had come from the National
Commission for UNESCO of any member-state. The said organization informed Ministry of Education, Government of
Bangladesh of the matter over
telephone. The Hon'ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh authorized the Education
Minister to send the Bangladesh
Proposal to UNESCO at the earliest
cutting down all the procedural formalities. The Proposal was promptly sent to UNESCO. This enabled UNESCO to
adopt the historic resolution in
the long run.
It
is a great achievement on the part of Bangladesh. Probably nothing equally great
has been achieved after the Independence war. The International Mother Language
Day is not only for Bangladesh,
rather it is for all speakers of all languages all over the world. In spite of
that, Bangladesh cannot but feel proud when 21st February has been chosen as the
International Mother Language Day.