The day was proclaimed by UNESCO’S November 1991 general conference and has been celebrated since 2000 to promote all languages in the world.

Praising the day, UNESCO director general Irina Bokova said: “The language of our thoughts and emotions is our most valuable asset. Multilingualism is our ally in ensuring quality education for all, in promoting inclusion and in combating discrimination. Building genuine dialogue must start with respect for languages.”

Calling using mother tongue as the best remedy against illiteracy, Bokova went on to say that the researches and impact of multilingualism have shown that people perceive intuitively that linguistic diversity accelerates work to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and Education for all goals in particular.”

According to UNESCO figures, nearly half of the 6,000 plus languages spoken in the world could die out by the end of the century, AK news said.

The UNESCO official added: “Language diversity results in cultural diversity that will eventually increase our creative diversity.”

On February 21, 1952 a group of students demonstrated in support of their mother language, in Dhaka in what is now Bangladesh, and were attacked by police forces and some of them were killed.