• The Government of India has initiated a Scheme known as “Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India’ (SPPEL), being implemented by Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore.

• This scheme aims at protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India which are spoken by less than 10,000 people. Dialects being part of a language are covered under this programme.

• The University Grants Commission (UGC) has a Scheme for “Establishment of Centres for Endangered Languages” under which centres were approved in respect of nine Central Universities.

• Further the UGC has been implementing a scheme namely ‘Funding support to the State Universities for study and research in indigenous and endangered language in India’’ under which seven Universities were approved for grants.

• In addition, a collaborative project between Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda and BHASA, a Non Governmental Organisation working for Promotion and Preservation of Indigenous and Endangered languages was approved by UGC.

Source:PIB