Protection And Preservation Of Endangered Languages Of India

It is an initiative of MHRD.
The Government of India has initiated a Scheme known as “Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India”. Under this Scheme, the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore works on protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 speakers keeping in mind the degree of endangerment and reduction in the domains of usage.
According to the criteria adopted by the UNESCO, a language becomes extinct when nobody speaks or remembers the language. The UNESCO has categorized languages on basis of endangerment as follows:-

(i) Vulnerable

(ii) Definitely Endangered

(iii) Severely Endangered

(iv) Critically Endangered

The Critically Endangered Languages as per UNESCO Report are:

LANGUAGE/DIALECT SPOKEN MAINLY IN

Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India