India’s Million Dollar Investment for promoting Hindi at UN
As part of a campaign to encourage the use of the Hindi language inside the international organization, India has donated a sizeable donation of USD $1 million for the United Nations (UN). Ruchira Kamboj, the Permanent Representative of India to the UN, gave Melissa Fleming, the Under Secretary General of the UN Department of Global Communications, the cheque. With this donation, the UN hopes to use Hindi more frequently and promote language diversity.
In a tweet, the Permanent Mission of India to the UN stated that they were committed to linguistic inclusion in the following words-
Investing in linguistic inclusivity! PR @ruchirakamboj handed a cheque of $1,000,000 to USG @MelissaFleming towards expanding the usage of #Hindi in @UN. With the Hindi@UN project, we are breaking barriers & enhancing public outreach.
On the basis of this event, Ambassador Kamboj emphasized the UN’s initiatives to mainstream and assemble news as well as multimedia in Hindi, which have been widely praised not just in India but also in other nations with a Hindi-speaking audience. She went on to say that the Government of India will keep promoting the use of Hindi at the UN and expressed delight in working with the organization to achieve this goal.
The Hindi@UN initiative, started in 2018 in partnership with the UN Department of Public Information, intends to increase outreach to the public and raise awareness of global concerns among millions of Hindi-speaking people throughout the world. Breaking down barriers and promoting inclusive conversation and understanding are also significant objectives of this effort.
The UN uses a variety of outlets to spread news in Hindi in order to accomplish these objectives. Some of these include the UN News website, the UN’s official Twitter account @UninHindi, the Instagram account “unitednationshindi,” the UN’s Hindi-language Facebook page, as well as a weekly UN News-Hindi audio bulletin that is accessible on Sound Cloud.
The UN Hindi social media accounts’ sizable followings are proof of the success of these initiatives. These accounts, which each have fifty thousand followers on Twitter, twenty-nine thousand on Instagram, as well as fifteen thousand on Facebook, post roughly one thousand times a year. The Hindi UN News website also receives 1.3 million impressions annually and frequently ranks in the top 10 search engine results.
India’s support to the UN’s effort to promote Hindi shows its dedication to linguistic diversity and the advancement of Hindi-speaking people across the world. It makes it easier for information to be shared in Hindi, allowing Hindi speakers to become more involved in international concerns.
Promoting Hindi inside the UN is in line with the organization’s larger objectives of inclusion and multilingualism and gives a wider audience a platform to take part in UN efforts. India’s contribution demonstrates its commitment to multilateralism and its efforts to ensure that Hindi-speaking people have their voices recognized and addressed on a global scale. India’s voluntary donation of USD $1 million to support Hindi language promotion at the UN shows the country’s dedication to promoting intercultural communication and understanding across linguistic divides.
The UN will use Hindi more frequently as a result of this investment, which will also increase Hindi speakers’ involvement in international affairs. As a result, the contribution India made to promote Hindi at the UN emphasizes the value of linguistic diversity and the relevance of Hindi as a universal language.
One of the languages with the greatest number of speakers worldwide is Hindi, which is predominantly spoken in India but is also spoken in a number of other nations. India is encouraging the use of Hindi at the UN because it understands how important it is for Hindi speakers to be acknowledged and represented on a worldwide basis.
The resulting shift enables Hindi-speaking people to participate more actively in debates about international issues, add to those conversations, and feel more included and represented within the international community. In order to promote communication and understanding across many cultures and groups, linguistic inclusion is essential. The United Nations encourages a more diverse and equitable culture by respecting diversity in language and offering forums for other languages, including Hindi. It recognises that language is essential for communicating, defining one’s identity, and expressing one’s culture.
Additionally, linguistic inclusion improves varied people’ ability to obtain information as well as knowledge. The UN makes sure that Hindi speakers may keep updated about international problems and events by distributing news and audiovisual content in Hindi via a variety of venues as mentioned above. By bridging the gap between various linguistic groups, this strengthens Hindi-speaking populations and promotes their active involvement in global events.
A crucial step in fulfilling the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to advance linguistic inclusion. Effective international communication, cooperation, as well as comprehension can be hampered by language limitations. The UN promotes a more welcoming and collaborative global environment through promoting Hindi and other languages, aiding progress achieving the SDGs and tackling different economic and social problems as well as cultural concerns.
Additionally, linguistic diversity encourages the preservation of culture and legacy. The UN acknowledges and appreciates the cultural diversity of its member nations by encouraging the use of languages like Hindi since language and culture are inextricably intertwined. It makes sure that cultural identities are cherished and conserved, adding to the richness of the world’s cultural legacy.
In concluding note, India’s commitment to promoting Hindi at the UN highlights the value of linguistic inclusion and acknowledges the relevance of Hindi as a world language. Inclusion of all languages not only helps linguistic communities but also international communication, understanding, and collaboration. The UN develops inclusive and representative surroundings, encourages information access, and helps to realize the Sustainable Development Goals by embracing language variety.
