Bhasha Certificate Selfie Campaign

• 26 Feb 2022

Why in News?

The Ministry of Education launched a campaign ‘Bhasha Certificate Selfie under Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat (EBSB).

• In 2021, the Ministry of Education launched the Bhasha Sangam initiative under EBSB.

What are the Key Points?

• It was launched to encourage cultural diversity and promote multilingualism and to foster the spirit EBSB.
• It aims to promote the Bhasha Sangam mobile app, developed by the Ministry of Education and MyGov India.
  
  • Bhasha Sangam mobile app was launched on Rashtriya Ekta Diwas 2021 (31st October).
• It aims to ensure that people acquire basic conversational skills in Indian languages. To achieve this, a target of 75 lakh people acquiring basic conversational skills has been set.
• The ‘Bhasha Certificate Selfie’ initiative is encouraging people to upload their selfie with the certificate from their social media accounts.

What is Bhasha Sangam Initiative?

• It is an initiative to teach basic sentences of everyday usage in 22 Indian languages (Eighth Schedule languages).
• It is developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
• The idea is that people should acquire basic conversational skills in an Indian language other than their mother tongue.
  
  • It is available on DIKSHA, ePathshala and through 22 booklets.

What is Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat Initiative?

• It was launched in 2015 to promote engagement amongst the people of different States/UTs so as to enhance mutual understanding and bonding between people of diverse cultures, thereby securing stronger unity and integrity of India.
• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Education.
• Every State and UT in the country would be paired with another State/UT for a time period, during which they would carry out a structured engagement with one another in the spheres of language, literature, cuisine, festivals, cultural events, tourism etc.

What is the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution?

• The Constitutional provisions relating to the Eighth Schedule occur in Article 344 (1) and 351 of the Constitution.
• The languages listed under Eighth Schedule are:
  
  • (1) Assamese, (2) Bengali, (3) Gujarati, (4) Hindi, (5) Kannada, (6) Kashmiri, (7) Konkani, (8) Malayalam, (9) Manipuri, (10) Marathi, (11) Nepali, (12) Oriya, (13) Punjabi, (14) Sanskrit, (15) Sindhi, (16) Tamil, (17) Telugu, (18) Urdu (19) Bodo, (20) Santhali, (21) Maithili and (22) Dogri.
• Languages are added through Constitutional Amendments.

Source: PIB