Fact Check: Did the UN declare Kalam's birth anniversary on 15 Oct 'World Student's Day'? Here's the truth
The list of international days and weeks recognized by the UN did not mention 15 October as 'World Student's Day'. In fact, 15 October is listed as 'International Day of Rural Women'.
By Newsmeter Network Published on 31 Oct 2021 4:34 PM GMT
Hyderabad: Social media users are sharing a post that says the UN has declared former Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam's birth anniversary on 15 October as 'World Students' Day'.
October 15 2021 marked the 90th birth anniversary of APJ Abdul Kalam.
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Find the archived version here.
Some media outlets like NDTV and Hindustan Times had also published the viral claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is false.
NewsMeter checked the UN's official website. The list of international days and weeks recognized by the UN did not mention 15 October as 'World Student's Day'. In fact, 15 October is listed as 'International Day of Rural Women'. It was adopted in December 2007.
https://daccess-ods.un.org/
To declare a day as 'International Day', a proposal has to be moved to the UN General Assembly by a member state. We found that 21 June was declared 'International Day of Yoga' after India submitted a proposal in the General Assembly. But there was no such announcement to declare Kalam's birth anniversary as 'World Student's Day'.
https://documents-dds-ny.un.
Check here and here to read about the various UN sessions.
An article by Indian Express from 5 November 2019, titled "UN denies announcing World Student's Day", said Rajiv Chandran, the national information officer, UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan, had denied that any such announcement had been made.
Many new outlets like Republic World, Times of India, India Today, and First Post had published reports saying 15 October is celebrated as 'World Students' Day'. Some had even reported that the UN had assigned 'Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace' as the theme for the occasion in 2020.
However, 'Learning for people, planet, prosperity and peace' was the theme for 'International Day of Education' (24 January) 2020. The UN General Assembly had declared 24 January as 'International Day of Education' in December 2018 to celebrate the role of education in fostering peace and development, and it is generally celebrated by UNESCO.
The online media portal oneindia.com had published an article on 15 October 2010 saying there was no information available on the UN website relating to the declaration of 15 October as 'World Students' Day'.
Factly- a fact-checking website ā had reached out to UN India through email seeking clarification regarding celebration of 'World Students' Day'. UN India had said, "United Nation has not declared former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam's birthday as World Students Day. We have neither passed a resolution nor organised any event related to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam."
In 2019, former Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana Anand Bhaskar Rapolu had, in a letter to the then Union HRD minister, asked to declare Dr. Kalam's birthday as 'National Students' Day'. The Central government is yet to decide on this matter. Read the report here.
Hence, the claim that the UN has declared APJ Kalam's birth anniversary on 15 October as 'World Students' Day' is false.
