The Vice President of India, M. Venkaiah Naidu appealed all State Governments to make mother tongue a mandatory subject at least up to high school level. Delivers 11th Convocation address at Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, in Chennai today.The Vice President said that a child can grasp and understand better in his or her own mother tongue than any other language. He further said that a child will be able to communicate and articulate her thoughts effectively in her native language. We can usually express our thoughts much better in our mother language, he added.The Vice President said that we live in a multicultural and multilingual world. He further said since language and culture are intertwined, there is an absolute need to strengthen our indigenous languages including the many languages spoken by many tribal groups in our country. Language is the lifeline of a culture and in a way defines the larger social milieu in which a society lives, he added.The Vice President said that lifes of the great people must be a part of History carriculum for all students including medical students and a country which forgets its history and culture will never prosper. He further said that one must remember the past and plan for the future and move accordingly. We have to revert back to our roots, we have to know our culture, he added.The Vice President said that the private sector must play a bigger role in developing health infra. He further said that the society has given a lot to the medical students and they must give back to the society by way of serving the rural population by working at least for two years in rural areas. There is an acute shortage of doctors as also healthcare facilities in the rural area and drastic changes must be made to make healthcare accessible to everyone, he added.