September 2024 | 687 words | 3-minute read
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Every year, nine languages on average go extinct, having no living speakers. With each disappearance, we lose not only the language, but the culture it came from. Many of these languages hold within them the histories and traditions of the people that speak them.
Tribal Languages across India show a similar fate. The 2014 Tribal Committee Report stated that “Multi-Lingual Education was necessary, in view of the low tribal literacy, high rates of dropouts and low learning achievements of the children.”
In 2024, UNESCO prioritised “promoting multilingual education” to focus on mutual understanding and social cohesion. Tata Steel Foundation has been working on not only promoting literacy, but on the importance of multilingualism and dying languages for more than a decade. One of the ways they do so is through their Tribal Language Classes.
Tata Steel Foundation introduced Tribal Language Classes in 2010. A part of their Tribal Cultural Society, these classes initially focused on teaching two tribal languages, Ho and Santali. These two tribal languages also had their own scripts — Ho language’s Warang Chiti and Santali’s Ol Chiki 2014 — which were also taught. Initially, these classes were taught in 15 centres with 9 being for the Ho language and 6 for the Santali language. Over the years, these numbers have grown with more than 500 centres reaching a much larger group of students.
Tribal languages are often not just a method of communication, but also vital to the preservation of tribes’ cultures and identity. Folklores, songs, history and cultural practices are often passed down in their native tongues. The disappearance of these languages could lead to a loss of a large part of the tribes’ history. Tata Steel Foundation in partnership with the Tribal Language Preservation Project are working to ensure that the next generation carries their traditions to the future.
Most of the traditions, music, and folktales of these tribal languages are passed down from generation to generation orally. With these languages nearly going extinct, the worry is that these traditions won’t be preserved. Which is why Tata Steel Foundation’s classes also focus on writing down these rich oral traditions. From songs to stories, learning the scripts and writing down the culture has become an integral part of the preservation efforts.
Tata Steel Foundation has developed over 40 original literary and academic works in the tribal languages they teach.
Over the years, the classes offered have expanded as has the reach and of these efforts. During the pandemic years, the Soceity was able to take their classes digital ensuring that the learning did not stop, and the language and cultures of the tribes could continue being taught to the next generation. 10 years after the programme had started, the Tribal Language Classes were reaching nearly 17,000 learners and helping them connect with their mother tongue.
Today, the Tata Steel Foundation offers classes for 12 tribal languages, 3 of which have scripts that are also being taught. Aside from the original Ho and Santali languages, they now teach Kurukh language as well as its script Tolong Siki, Mundari, Bhumij, Khadia, Bedia, Birjiya, Birhor, Asuri, Sabar, and Mal Pahadiya. Tata Steel Foundation’s investment extends beyond their own classrooms as they have facilitated the inclusion of these languages into the curriculum of 56 schools making it one of India’s largest language learning programmes. There are nearly 900 teachers who teach more than 40,000 students as of September 2024. Tata Steel Foundation also works with fourteen community-based organisations to further the impact of their language classes.
Since its inception, Tata Steel Foundation’s focus for the Tribal Language Classes have not changed. As their impact grows, Tata Steel Foundations constantly finds various ways of ensuring that these languages and cultures do not fade into the past but are alive and preserved for today’s generation as well as those in future.
The story in numbers
- FY20 Total Learners: 23,005
- FY21 Total Learners: 16,947*
- FY22 Total Learners: 28,680
- FY23 Total Learners: 33,560
- FY24 Total Learners: 43,140
*Covid year
- Archana Warrier
