MOTHER TONGUE OF INDIA

• As per an analysis of 2011 linguistic census data in 2018, more than 19, 500 languages or dialects are spoken in India as mother tongues.
• The category "Mother's tongue" is a designation provided by the respondent, but it need not be identical to the actual linguistic medium.
• After subjecting the 19, 569 returns to linguistic scrutiny, editing and rationalisation, they were grouped into 121 mother tongues in India.

• According to the 2011 linguistic census, Hindi is the most widely spoken mother tongue, with 52.8 crores of people or 43.6 per cent of the population declaring it as the mother tongue.
• The next highest is Bengali, the mother tongue of 9.7 crores individuals, accounting for 8 per cent of the population.

4. Impact of Mother Tongue on children's education 

• The new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for the foundational stages of education, launched by the Education Minister last month, has recommended that the mother tongue should be the primary medium of instruction in schools for children up to eight years of age.
• The focus on the mother tongue as the medium of instruction, especially for primary schooling, has been a feature of education policies for years, the latest push for the use of the mother tongue has come after repeated policy articulations in favour of the Central Government.

• According to the NCF, evidence from research confirms the importance of teaching children in their mother tongue during the foundational years and beyond.
• Since children learn concepts most rapidly and deeply in their home language, the primary medium of instruction would optimally be the child's home language or Mother tongue or Familiar language in the Foundational Stage.

5. Status of the Population census

• The forthcoming decennial population census will be the 16th since the first exercise was conducted in 1872.
• It will be the eighth census since independence.
• The census was supposed to take place in 2021 but was postponed due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• To ensure efficient processing and quick release of data and it has adopted some new initiatives which include digital processing and the use of geospatial technology.
• The pre-census mapping activities like the preparation and updating of maps that show administrative units will be carried out.
• Census results will be disseminated via web-based interactive maps.
• Jurisdictional changes that occurred in the country after Census 2011 till 31-12-2019 have been updated in the geo-referenced database and more than 6 lakh maps (district or sub-district or village level) have been prepared and uploaded for census functionaries.

For Prelims & Mains