CHENNAI: The Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Department will soon introduce a policy framework to safeguard the languages of tribal communities in the state. A two-day conference aimed at brainstorming ideas for the formulation of the policy concluded on Saturday.
The conference, held in collaboration with the Madras School of Social Work, deliberated on preservation and promotion of tribal cultural heritage, with an emphasis on tribal languages. This initiative follows the announcement in Assembly that linguistic resources of the state’s tribes, including seven tribal languages, will be documented with an allocation of Rs 2 crore. As many as 17 delegates from disciplines like anthropology, linguistics, folklore and museology took part in the event.
According to officials, the policy can be expected in the next four months. “We are planning to take workable and implementable ideas and form a policy,” said an official.
There are 37 tribal communities in the state, of which six are classified as particularly vulnerable tribal groups. The budget mentioned that the languages of Toda, Kota, Solaga, Kani and Narikuravar will be documented and preserved. “While none of the tribal languages have a script, some, like Toda, have been extensively studied since the British period. To study the other tribal languages, we will need to explore their folklore, stories and other oral traditions. We will form committees once the policy is prepared, and the process of studying the languages will start soon. We will also collaborate with various institutions working in this field, as well as the United Nations, which has declared 2022-2032 the Decade of Indigenous Languages,” the official added.
Speaking at the closing plenary session of the conference, Finance Secretary T Udhayachandran said, “We have digitised 75,000 Tamil books and manuscripts through the Tamil Virtual Academy. We must now consider the audio and visual digitisation of materials. Preserving tribal languages is essential for maintaining our multi-pluralistic culture,” he said.
Former HC judge K Chandru, secretary of the Adi Dravidar Welfare and Tribal Welfare Department G Laxmi Priya, and other officials spoke.