On the occasion of 66 birthday of noted Garhwali singer Narendra Singh Negi a symposium was organised to discuss ways to strengthen local languages like Garhwali and Kumaoni on Wednesday. The programme was organised under the aegis of lok Samman Samiti.
The speakers expressed concern over sorry state of affairs of local languages in the symposium titled ‘threats facing Uttarakhand’s languages’. Eminent scholar Bharti Pandey said that UNESCO in its recent atlas of world languages has categorized Garhwali and Kumaoni languages in unsafe category. She said that the reasons like large scale migration and effect of other languages on local population are some of the reasons for dismal condition of local languages. Pandey said that it appears that the local people are shy of speaking in their native language which is a very disturbing trend for any language. Another speaker Kuldeep Singh Rawat said that it is a point to ponder that the speakers of local languages are decreasing even though the population is increasing. He said that native languages like Garhwali are more effective than Hindi and English for communication as they have different word for every sentiment and expression.