5 Endangered Languages of India

In India, languages belong to certain language families, with the main ones being Indo-Aryan languages (78 percent) and Dravidian languages (19.64 percent). According to the Eighth Amendment of the Indian Constitution, 22 languages in India are scheduled languages and the other languages do not have the official status by the Government of India as they are not used in the country and the government is not bound to develop them. At present, there are demands for the inclusion of 44 more languages in the Eight Schedule to the Constitution.

Remember, India is home to 780 languages and is second only to Papua New Guinea (839). But researchers believe that India may have lost 200 languages since 1961. Reports say that 191 languages of India are classified as vulnerable or endangered. Many of these languages are on the verge of disappearance and hence it becomes our responsibility to nurture and preserve these languages to eliminate them from being lost in the cold. Destroying these man-made languages are an injustice to the predecessors and ancestors. Let’s talk about some of the lesser spoken languages in the country, which are under the threat of extinction.