The Ministry of Tribal Affairs plans to build Adi Vaani as a national repository to preserve tribal languages. Experts met to discuss how to save endangered tongues and improve access to resources. Chamu Krishna Shastry said, "Speakers must remain at the heart of preservation efforts." This project aims to help students.
Chaired by Ranjana Chopra, secretary, ministry of tribal affairs (MoTA), the meeting brought together 18 eminent linguists, academics, researchers and community language practitioners. Among those who participated were Padma Shri awardee Chamu Krishna Shastry, chairman of Bhasha Samiti, and K Sreenivasa Rao, former secretary of the Sahitya Akademi.
The ministry plans to position Adi Vaani as the National Tribal Language Repository, bringing together linguistic research, dictionaries, primers, speech datasets, recordings and community stories on a common platform. The initiative is intended to consolidate work scattered across institutions, reduce duplication and improve access to resources for researchers, educators and tribal communities.
A presentation to the working group estimated that more than 400 of India’s approximately 780 spoken languages are tribal and indigenous tongues. It also flagged the loss of around 220 languages over five decades and noted that 123 of the 197 endangered languages listed by UNESCO are tribal languages.
IIT Delhi sought the working group’s support in validating linguistic datasets, standardising spellings and scripts, and developing specialised vocabulary for different domains.
Experts call for community-led preservation
Shastry outlined seven pillars for developing an Indian language, including retaining speakers’ proficiency, using the language in education and administration, creating contemporary literature, developing new vocabulary, adopting technology, producing teaching materials and securing wider institutional and social support. He emphasised that speakers must remain at the heart of preservation efforts.
Rao proposed searchable state-wise and language-wise directories of writers, scholars and resources, district-level community resource groups involving trained tribal youth, community digital archives and a two-year action plan with quarterly reviews.
Other experts suggested creating a national atlas of tribal languages, establishing regional teams and adopting common standards for digital archives. Participants also stressed the need to develop technical vocabulary for school subjects and train community members in language documentation.
Next steps for the tribal language roadmap
The National Education Society for Tribal Students said more than 525 Eklavya Model Residential Schools, serving over 1.7 lakh students, could use Adi Vaani in classrooms. Students, teachers and parents could also contribute stories, poems and other material to enrich the repository.
The ministry will seek details of languages and resources available with working group members before preparing a roadmap in coordination with IIT Delhi. The proposed effort will focus on research, digital documentation, community participation and multilingual education to keep tribal languages in everyday use.