UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY’S ADOPTION OF MULTILINGUALISM RESOLUTION

UNGA adopts India sponsored resolution on multilingualism mentioning Hindi language for the first time. The resolution encourages the UN to disseminate important communications in non-official languages too including Hindi. The other languages mentioned are Bangla, Urdu, Portuguese, Kiswahili, and Persian. At present UN has six official languages – English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, French and Spanish. Welcoming the additions, India’s Permanent Ambassador to UN Mr. T.S. Tirumurthi expressed gratitude to the Secretary General.

The resolution is of importance and provides long due recognition to Hindi, specifically given the number that speak the language around the world.

In 2018, India started project HINDI @ UN, purpose of which was to spread information related to UN in Hindi and to spread greater awareness about global issues among millions of Hindi speaking population around the world.

India in 2018 entered into partnership with UN’s Global Communication Department. India has already spent more than Rs. 6 crores in May 2022 to promote Hindi language in the working of UN.

UN’s adoption of the multilingualism resolution is encouraging. India will continue its support to further push and enhance multilingualism at the UN and globally.