Hindi Day celebrated in Hillsborough, New Jersey

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Yuva Hindi Sansthan (YHS), a New Jersey-based non-profit organization, hosted an event at Hillsborough library September 23, 2023, to commemorate Hindi as India’s official language.

Hindi was duly recognized in the Constitution of India, as the language for official purposes on Sept 14, 1949. However, English was also allowed to continue as a language for communication in government departments.

“When the young Hindi learners presented their work at the Hillsborough Township library in New Jersey, they demonstrated how language learning can lead to serious cognitive thinking among the learners,” a press release from YHS said.

Yuva Hindi Sansthan invited young Hindi learners to showcase their Hindi skills by making presentations on topics of interest.

Three young learners, Aarav, Aanya and Alva presented what they had learned in their Hindi classes taught by their Hindi teacher Neena Sarin at the library in Jersey City.

They learned how a beautiful city, such as, Nainital, was facing a crisis because of the ‘climate change’ phenomenon developing in the local environment. They depicted in their posters how the  Nainital Lake was getting polluted and what should be done to improve the situation.

“The kids are learning speaking, reading and writing Hindi and at the same time they are being aware of the problems around them,” Sarin is quoted saying in the press release. “We not only want the next generation to learn their language but also inspire them to think about the challenges society was facing,” she added. Sarin is a Mathematics teacher employed by the Jersey City Public Schools system. “We want our kids to grow up as a world citizen in true sense,” said Sarin who had visited Nainital in 2022 as a participant in the YHS Fulbright-Hays GPA program, when she witnessed the degradation taking place in Nainital due to climate change.

The three youth were also able to explain in Hindi how ‘climate change’ was not just a local problem for Nainital, but it had global implications.

Ashok Ojha, president, Yuva Hindi Sansthan, complimented the young learners for creating a high quality presentation. “It is the duty of a language teacher to make the learners aware of the challenges world was facing,” he said, adding, “The real purpose of language teaching was to help students articulate social issues in the language they were learning and suggest ways to resolve them.” He announced that the students who made presentations at the event, will be rewarded with gift cards.

Upendra Chivukula, chairman, Yuva Hindi Sansthan, termed language learning as an essential part of modern education. “Language learning by students indicates social progress. We should always consider language and culture as essential parts of today’s education.”

Chivukula appealed to parents of Indian origin to motivate their children for learning Hindi,  and remain close to India’s culture.

Other students, Samanvi, Daksha. and Navya performed Indian classical dances at the event. Mamta Tripathi, a life-long promoter of Hindi also spoke on the occasion. Akila Shekar, secretary, YHS thanked the gathering for attending the event.