Mother Tongue Survey of India

26-08-2023

12:21 PM

1 min read

Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) – About, number of mother tongues in India, mother tongue in education

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has completed the Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) with field videography of the country’s 576 languages.

Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI)

It is a project that surveys the mother tongues, which are returned consistently across two and more Census decades.
It also documents the linguistic features of the selected languages.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) and the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) will be documenting and preserving the linguistic data of the surveyed mother tongues in audio-video files.

According to the 2011 linguistic census data released in 2018, there are more than 19,500 languages and dialects spoken as mother tongues in India.
These 19,500 languages were further grouped into 121 categories of mother tongue after linguistic scrutiny and rationalising.
According to 2011 linguistic census data, Hindi is the most spoken mother tongue by 52.8 crore people of the country, accounting for 43.6 per cent of the population.
Following that, 9.7 crore people or 8 per cent of the population spoke Bengali, making it the country’s second most popular mother tongue.
- It should be noted that mother tongue is a designation given to a language by the respondent of the survey.
- It need not be identical with the actual linguistic medium.

In September 2022, President Murmu emphasised that talent development in science, literature and social sciences can be more effective if taught in one’s mother tongue.
In July 2022, Union Home Minister said that pursuing education in a language other than one’s mother tongue prevented 95 per cent of Indians from achieving their true potential.
Keeping this in mind, the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020, aims to promote mother tongue and regional languages.
The new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for the foundational stages (ages 3 to 8) of education has recommended that mother tongue should be the primary medium of instruction in schools for children up to eight years of age.
- The new NCF, launched by Education Minister last month, deals with pre-school and classes I-II.
- It emphasises the virtues of the mother tongue as the primary medium of instruction.

LSI is a regular research activity in the country since the 6th Five Year Plan.
The primary objective of the present Linguistic Survey of India is to present an updated linguistic scenario.
It further aims to provide necessary inputs to the social/educational planners in respective States for their planning to attain the envisaged goals.