KATHMANDU, Feb 21: The Language Commission has started preservation of a total of 37 languages with less than 1,000 native speakers in order to save them from extinction.

At a seminar jointly organized by the Commission, Nepal Academy and UNESCO on Monday on the occasion of International Mother Language Day, it was shared that among the 37 languages, 23 are already on the verge of extinction. 

Presenting a working paper, Commission's Chairperson Dr Lavdev Awasthi said that the Commission began preservation of those languages in association with the University Grant Commission. 

On the occasion, Dr Sulochana Manandhar presented a paper on popular Nepali fairy tales and interrelated relation between human and environment while Dr Balkrishna Bal shed light on the technical process of translation of languages. 

Similarly, Dr Som Bahadur Dhital presented his paper on the Dhimal language and relation with cultures. All the paper presenters univocally called for preservation of mother languages of various ethnic communities. 

Inaugurating the event, Academy's Chancellor Ganga Prasad Uprety said that the program was organized to support preservation as well as conservation of all mother languages in multilingual society like ours. 

Similarly, secretary at the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Maheshwor Neupane viewed that the State should ensure that mechanism, infrastructures and human resources to provide education to students in their respective mother languages as mandated by the constitution. 

He underscored coordination among three-tier governments to preserve and conserve mother languages. 

Likewise, member-secretary at the Academy Jagat Prasad Upadhyay underlined coordination among various universities and stakeholder agencies to provide education in various mother languages. He shared that a study showed that every 15 days, two languages were being extinct across the world.

UNESCO representatives Nirjana Sharma, representatives from the Bangladeshi Embassy in Nepal Ishrat Jahan, scholar Yogendra Prasad Yadav among others reaffirmed their commitment to continue with the collaboration among the stakeholders for the preservation of the mother languages. 

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Programme (UNESCO) in 2000 declared to observe International Mother Language Day on every February 21.

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