India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York commemorated World Hindi Day on February 13. The event was themed “Multilingualism and the Promotion of Hindi Abroad.”
Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Savitri Thakur, was the Guest of Honour. In her address, Thakur recalled the initiation of World Hindi Day on January 10, 2006, highlighting India’s multilingual and multicultural social fabric, according to a press release from India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Thakur emphasized that several initiatives are underway to make Hindi a more popular language, and recognition by the United Nations would elevate its global stature.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, noted that Hindi has been included in the list of non-official languages at the UN. He also mentioned that India has contributed approximately USD 7 million to promote UN News in Hindi and expressed gratitude to the UN’s Department of Global Communications for their support.
“UN’s Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, Melissa Fleming, stated that Hindi, with a speaker base of 600 million, is of vital importance for the United Nations. She highlighted that the Hindi@UN project and related social media updates are bringing UN activities closer to Hindi speakers,” according to India’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York.
Speakers at the event included prominent academics who shared their experiences in promoting Hindi in the US. They emphasized that in a globalized world, multilingualism, media, and modern technology can expand Hindi content on social media and digital platforms, increasing accessibility, particularly among youth.
UN officials, language enthusiasts, representatives of Indian institutions, and several others attended the event. The Indian government initiated World Hindi Day in January 2006 to enhance efforts in promoting and popularizing Hindi on a global scale. Since then, it has been celebrated worldwide every year.