question_answer 17)

Find out about the following. (You may go to the Internet, interview people, consult reference books or visit a library.)    

Answer:

(a) Linguistic human rights   International human rights law, plays an important role in setting standards for linguistic rights and, especially, for the protection and promotion of the identity of linguistic minority groups, ft provides the normative framework for developing principles of democratic governance and multicultural policies aimed at managing ethno-linguistic conflict. The rights of persons belonging to linguistic minorities have been increasingly acknowledged in international human rights law as both individual and collective human rights. To raise awareness about linguistic rights and to provide tools for decision-makers in governments, parliaments, and civil society, UNESCO's MOST (Management of Social Transformation) Programme has collected the most relevant provisions in international conventions, declarations, and multilateral treaties, which pertain to linguistic rights.   (b) Constitutional guarantees for linguistic minorities in India India, with a population of around one billion people, is often regarded as a model of harmonious linguistic coexistence within a single state. It has two official languages (Hindi and English), 18 major languages scheduled in the Indian Constitution, and 418 'listed' languages, each spoken by 10,000 people or more. All-India Radio broadcasts in 24 languages and in 146 dialects; newspapers are published in at least 34 languages; 67 languages are used in primary education, and 80 in literacy work. The constitution guarantees alt citizens the right to 'conserve' their language, and all religious or linguistic minorities have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. But, organizing multilingualism in a land whose multilingual tradition goes back several thousand years, is no easy matter. The Indian Union today consists of 28 states and 7 Union territories, a number of which were formed in 1956 on a unilingual basis to reduce the number of linguistic minorities by bringing together people who speak a common language. But the official languages adopted by the states and territories, are not necessarily spoken by all their respective populations; not even one state is completely monolingual.