By Balwant Sanghera

Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA) has been actively promoting Punjabi language in Canada and BC for more than 30 years. Every year, it celebrates International Mother Language Day to create more awareness about out mother tongue in the community. This year's celebration held at Taj Park Convention Centre in Surrey on Sunday, February 23 was a great success.  The PLEA team of dedicated volunteers did a great job in making this celebration a memorable one. Throughout the year, PLEA continues to lobby various levels of government, private organizations, businesses and the community promoting Punjabi. Incidentally, in Canada, Punjabi has now become the third most spoken language after English and French. It has more than two million speakers of Punjabi all over Canada. Internationally, Punjabi is the tenth most spoken language in the world with more than 150 million speakers.

In this context, it is very encouraging to see a lot of government and non-government organizations and businesses provide their services in Punjabi. Most of our banks, credit unions and other financial institutions, hospitals, city halls and other organizations are proud to provide their services in Punjabi as well. Vancouver international airport was one of the first ones to provide services in Punjabi at the airport and welcome the international passengers in Punjabi. Similarly, public corporations like ICBC provide their claim services in Punjabi. A lot of banks have their ATM services in Punjabi as well. More services in Punjabi at various levels are being added to the list. PLEA is very thankful to all of them for their support for Punjabi.

Recently, upon public demand, PLEA has approached Canada Blood Service to provide its services in Punjabi as well. We have brought to the attention of the authorities that the Punjabi community is a very generous community and would like to participate more actively in their blood donation drives. However, there are some language barriers that need to be removed to encourage more active participation by the Punjabi speakers. Printing the forms and criteria for blood donations etc. in Punjabi will certainly help. The provision of Punjabi speakers to help the donors is already being done and appreciated.  In order to make appropriate changes in the Provincial language policy and promotion of Punjabi, PLEA has been in touch with the Minister of Education and Child Care, Ms. Lisa Beare and her staff. Their response has been very encouraging

British Columbia is a favourite tourist destination for tourists from other parts of Canada and the world. PLEA has requested the Minister of Tourism, Art, Culture and Sports Mr. Spencer Chandra Herbert to place welcoming and exit signs in Punjabi at all of the border entry points with other provinces and states. A meeting in this regard with the Ministry officials was very encouraging. It is our hope that this will be done as soon as possible. In addition to these, PLEA is also pursuing several other avenues to promote Punjabi language in BC and Canada. For this, we are very thankful to all of the well-wishers and supporters of Punjabi.

Balwant Sanghera is the President , Punjabi Language Education Association (PLEA).