A call to popularise Telugu and save it from threat of extinction was made at a rally conducted here on Monday on the occasion of International Mother Tongue Day.
The rally by schoolchildren on the beach road from the statue of NTR to the statue of Puripanda Appalaswamy was organised under the aegis of Loknayak Foundation.
Andhra University Vice-Chancellor B. Satyanarayana, HMTV Chief Editor K. Ramachandra Murthy, Andhra Bhoomi Editor M.V.R. Sastry and Lok Nayak Foundation chairman Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad were among those present.
The day is observed as per the call given by UNESCO in memory of students killed in Dhaka while fighting for official language status to Bangla in 1952. Telugu was among 196 languages identified as under threat for extinction in India by UNESCO in its report submitted in 2008. Dr. Lakshmi Prasad called for change in mindset of people to educate their wards in Telugu and demanded compulsory teaching of Telugu from first standard to degree as one of the language papers.
As per UNESCO study, of 6,500 languages in the world, 2,500 were under threat for want of patronage.
UNESCO thinks that promoting recognition and practice of various languages will prevent the threat of their extinction.
Several Indian languages are facing the threat due to growing craze by parents to teach their children in English medium and make them good at communication in English to get good jobs at the cost of their own mother tongues.
