Context: Union Minister has informed Rajya Sabha about the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India(SPPEL).

What is the Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages (SPPEL)?

• SPPEL Scheme was initiated by the Government of India in 2013. 
• Objective: To document and archive the country’s languages that have become endangered or likely to be endangered in the near future.
• The scheme is monitored by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) located in Mysuru, Karnataka. 
• Under the Scheme, the CIIL works on the protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 speakers which are called endangered languages. 
• In the first phase of the scheme, 117 endangered languages/mother tongues have been chosen from all over India for study and documentation on a priority basis.

What are the other schemes for the preservation of Endangered Languages?

• University Grants Commission(UGC) has launched two schemes for the protection of endangered languages namely ‘Funding Support to the State Universities for Study and Research in Indigenous and Endangered Languages in India’ and ‘Establishment of Centres for Endangered Languages in Central Universities’.