First in India: 21 Tribal Dictionaries unveiled in Odisha

ONI Bureau:  To promote, preserve and protect the tribal culture in the state, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday unveiled bilingual tribal dictionaries.

Developed by the state government’s Academy of Tribal Language and Culture, the bilingual tribal dictionaries for multilingual education (MLE) and trilingual tribal language proficiency modules in all the 21 tribal languages will help in enhancing proficiency in tribal languages at the elementary level in the tribal dominated districts.

The dictionaries will be distributed to all tribal schools and libraries in tribal districts.

It is to be noted that Odisha is home to 62 tribal communities. They speak 21 languages and 74 dialects.  Out of the 21 tribal languages, only 7 have their own scripts.