Statement by India under Agenda Item 3: Interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights at the 49^th Session of the Human Rights Council (28^th February - 1^st April, 2022) delivered by Mr. Pawankumar Badhe, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of India
(Geneva, 9^th March, 2022)

Mr. Vice President, 

My delegation congratulates Ms. Alexandra Xanthaki on her appointment as the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights and welcomes her report on her vision of her mandate.

Mr. Vice President,

2. India is an ancient civilization that is home to a multitude of cultural traditions and living heritage. India recognizes that in the era of globalization, cultural traditions and values, that are the backbone of any society, are facing multifaceted challenges.

3. Our constitution provides, as a fundamental right, that any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same. At the same time, it makes it a duty of every citizen of India to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture.

4. My Government has introduced several legislations and schemes for safeguarding tangible and intangible culture in India. Our Government is focusing on use of new technological innovations and artificial intelligence for digitalization, documentation, training and data creation for preserving cultural heritage and traditions. We are giving priority to content creation for media in various Indian languages. Digitalization of Museum and the recently launched the Bhasha Sangam ‘Language Confluence’ app that teaches users sentences of daily use in 22 major Indian languages are some recent initiatives in this regard. My Prime Minister has appealed to students in India to learn languages, to strengthen the spirit of ‘Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat’ to foster mutual respect amongst citizens from different regions and speaking different languages in the country. My Government has also taken several steps to improve the financial and socio-economic status of artists and scholars in the field of arts and culture including through pension schemes and medical aid to old age artists.

5. We believe that it important for countries around the world to continue the existing collaborations in this field to share best practices and technologies to conserve tangible and intangible culture. As a pluralistic, democratic, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural State and the world’s largest democracy, we have been and will continue to be a bridge between differing ideologies, cultures and civilizations.

Thank you, Mr. Vice President

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