It is heartening to see the government has taken extensive measures to modernize the use of the Bangla language in the digital sphere.
It is true that Bangladesh is on the path to become a smart economy, with middle-income status knocking at our doors. However, it is imperative that as we modernize and become a nation that is on par with the rest of the world, we retain what makes us truly Bangladeshi.
To that end, facilitating the use of Bangla on digital platforms and devices is a necessity, so that the majority of Bangladeshis do not struggle as they lead more and more digital lives.
Also encouraging is knowing that a language archive is being developed by collecting data on 40 languages of Bangladesh. We have rightfully been criticized in the past for not respecting our indigenous languages, and there is hope that the many endangered languages used in Bangladesh will now be preserved.
Of these apps are Sathik, a free app, which was developed to fix spelling, grammar, and writing errors in documents, while Barna is a software that can convert non-editable Bangla text in PDFs or images into editable text.
It is also encouraging that there are big corporations like Beximco providing support, telling us that the authorities concerned are indeed serious about this initiative.
If we are to truly become a paperless society in the near future, digitizing the use of the Bangla language so that it is ubiquitous is something that must be prioritized, and the fact we are starting to launch apps to help with this is certainly a step in the right direction.
