Purushottama Bilimale, President Kannada Development Authority speaking at the Arebhashe Gadinada Utsava organised by the Karnataka Arebhashe Culture and Literature Academy recently at Madikeri said that now a days we are witnessing the death of languages.
Purushottama Bilimale quoting a report informed that , a total of 172 languages will be vanished by the next 50 years. Out of them 72 will be extinct in the next 30 years. Speaking further he said that there were 55,000 people who spoke the Koraga language in 1881. In 2011, the number reduced to 2,000. Chairman by seeing this stressed on the need for an action plan to protect such languages.
He also informed that Hindi is now growing at a rate of 66% while Odiya and Marathi are growing at a rate of 12 to 13%. However, Kannada is growing at a rate of 3.7%. The number of people who are speaking Kodava and Arebhashe were also seen decline. During 2001 many as 1.6 lacks people were speaking Kodava language but in 2011, their numbers reduced to 1.3 lack, which is not at all a good sign.
Purushottama Bilimale further alleged that 55,000 teachers’ posts were lying vacant in Karnataka and soon around 36,000 teachers would retire by the end of March 2026 and in the Mysore University 700 vacant posts are there. He further said ” there is a need of Rs 100 crore to establish a university, and if the present situation of closing university by the government and due to shortages of teachers continue, how will the students gather skills and get job-opportunities in future? “
