Lok Sabha Question No. 1902 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-03-13
Subject: Funds Spent on Promotion of Languages
Ministry: Education
Asked by: Dayanidhi Maran

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION

## DEPARTMENT OF HIGHER EDUCATION

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 1902

ANSWERED ON - 13/03/2023

## FUNDS SPENT ON PROMOTION OF LANGUAGES

1902.  SHRI DAYANIDHI  MARAN:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a)  the  various  steps  taken  by  the  Government  for  development  and promotion of Tamil language during the last five years;

(b) the amount of funds allocated for the Government's programmes for the promotion of various languages, itemised/language/year-wise and the funds allocated for each during the last five years;

(c) the total amount of funds spent for the promotion of Hindi, Tamil and Sanskrit languages during the last eight years itemised/year-wise; and

(d) the various programmes currently underway for the study, research and promotion of Tamil as a classical language and the funds allocated, itemised/project-wise?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (DR. SUBHAS SARKAR)

(a) to (c): The National Education Policy, 2020 focuses on promotion of all Indian languages including Tamil. NEP 2020 provides, wherever possible, for medium of instruction to be in the home language/mother tongue/local language up to at least class 5 and preferably class 8. The policy  also  provides  for  making  available  quality  text  books  in  home language/mother  tongue  and  encouraging  teachers  to  use  bilingual approach while teaching. Promotion of various languages is done by CIIL through its schemes and projects and by developing pedagogical literature.  CIIL offers a ten-month diploma programme in Tamil. It also translates books into Tamil, develops language resources for the language technology and testing materials for Tamil. Digitization of knowledge text of Tamil is also done to make it available for the general public.

A consolidated amount is provided to the CIIL as Grants.  Allocation is  not  released language-wise. Apart from this, grants are also allocated to certain languages institutions under the Grants for Promotion of Indian Languages (GPIL) for  promotion of Sanskrit,  Hindi  and  other  languages under  various  schemes.  The  details  of  grants  allocated  and  released  to CIIL  and  other  language  institutions  for  the  last  eight  years  is  given below:

(Rs. in crores)

|           | 2014-15   | 2015-16   | 2016-17   | 2017-18   | 2018-19   | 2019-20   | 2020-21   | 2021-22   |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
| Allocated | 376.68    | 417.18    | 432.28    | 450.13    | 449.47    | 529.17    | 547.93    | 532.88    |
| Budget    |           |           |           |           |           |           |           |           |
| Released  | 287.90    | 372.39    | 359.52    | 426.52    | 457.91    | 496.01    | 439.43    | 452.14    |

(d):  Government  of  India  has  established  a  separate  institute  namely Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) at Chennai which works for the development and promotion of Classical Tamil.  CICT conducts seminars, workshops, short term projects and translation of Tirukkural into Scheduled Languages and other languages for the promotion and development of Classical Tamil. CICT has so far published 55 publications in book format and 8 in multimedia and non-book format.  The details of grants released to CICT for promotion of Classical Tamil  during the last five years is given below:

(figure in lakhs)

|   2018-19 |   2019-20 |   2020-21 |   2021-22 |   2022-23 |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|
|    465.25 |    980.78 |      1173 |   1186.15 |      1200 |

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