Ministry of Tribal Affairs convenes first working group on tribal languages

The Indian Ministry of Tribal Affairs convened the inaugural meeting of its Working Group on Tribal Languages in a hybrid workshop format. Chaired by Secretary Ranjana Chopra, the group includes linguists, academics, and researchers from various institutions, such as the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), several Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), and the Bhasha Samiti.

The Working Group is tasked with guiding the documentation, preservation, research, and promotion of tribal languages throughout the country. Secretary Chopra emphasized that language preservation is vital for improving the delivery of welfare initiatives to tribal communities. She also highlighted the importance of mother-tongue-based multilingual education to address early learning gaps.

A key component of these efforts involves ‘Adi Vaani’, a tool that began as a translation resource for administrators but is expected to evolve into a comprehensive language repository containing corpora, dictionaries, and community stories.