Odisha Tribals' Fight to Preserve Mother Tongues

Why in News?

In Rayagada district's Engerba village, 14 Saora tribal families are running a community-funded school — paying teachers in rice and pulses instead of salary — to save their mother tongue and indigenous script from extinction, reflecting a broader struggle across Odisha to preserve endangered tribal languages.

About the Engerba Initiative

• Location: Engerba village, Rayagada district, Odisha
• Community: Saora (Sabara) tribe
• Institution: SP Mangali Ashram school — 62 students, Classes I–VIII
• Medium of instruction: Saora language, taught using the Sorang Sompeng script
• Sustenance model: No government support; 14 teachers work unpaid; villagers contribute food grains and wages earned from road construction work

Origin and Functioning

• Founded by Giria Sabar, after villagers observed children losing fluency in Saora due to dominance of Odia/English in formal education
• Villagers pooled savings and built a mud structure to start the school
• Currently run by Chakrapani Sabara, a retired government official, following the founder's death over a decade ago
• Teaching method: Textbooks translated into Saora; material in Odia/English transcribed into Sorang Sompeng script; examinations conducted in Saora and the script itself

Status of Tribal Languages in Odisha

• Odisha has ~10 million tribal population from 64 communities
• These communities speak 21 distinct tribal languages and 74 dialects
• Only four languages — Santhali, Ho, Sora, and Kui — possess their own scripts
• Santhali is included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution; efforts are underway to secure similar recognition for Ho

Government Initiative

• 2006: Odisha introduced a Multilingual Education (MLE) Programme, under which tribal children are taught in their mother tongue during the first five years of primary education

UNESCO Classification of Endangerment

• Languages spoken by fewer than 10,000 people are classified by UNESCO as "potentially endangered"
• 197 Indian tribal languages fall under the endangered category
• Remosam — spoken by the Bonda tribe (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, Malkangiri district) — is classified as "severely endangered", with only 6,500–7,000 fluent speakers remaining

Similar Community-Led Preservation Efforts