Rama Paharia of Rajmahal, who belongs to Paharia tribe of Jharkhand, one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG), is an advocate by profession, the only one from his tribe. However, currently he can be seen sitting at Dr Ram Dayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute (TRI) situated in Morhabadi, translating children books written in Hindi in to Malto language, one of the languages spoken by the PVTGs.
He said, “I am doing this so that children from our tribe also get an opportunity be educated and be linked to main stream schooling without any hassle. The best way to do this is to teach them in their own language.”
In a bid to ensure better learning among the children of PVTGs of Jharkhand and preventing their languages from being extinct, TRI in coordination with National Book Trust (NBT) is getting 15 children story books translated in to five different languages spoken by PVTGs.
Pankaj Chaturvedi, editor at NBT said, “We had signed a MoU with TRI in 2018 for translation of books for children in tribal languages and translation of research work done in tribal languages into Hindi and other languages.”
In 2018, NBT organised a workshop in which 35 books were translated in major tribal languages like Santhali, Mundari Kharia, Ho and Kurukh.
“We were contacted by TRI director for translation of books into PVTG languages recently so we decided to organize a workshop for translating 15 books in five PVTG languages including Birhor, Malto, Asur, Birji and Bhumij,” Chaturvedi said.
The workshop started on Monday and will conclude on August 1. While the languages being used are that of PVTGs, the script is Devnagiri. The books being translated are story books for children between six to 12 years of age.
The translators are not professionals but people belonging to these PVTGs itself. “They have come in from interior areas of Sahibgunj, Dumka and other districts.
They are not experts but warriors in preserving and passing on their language,” the NBT editor said.
The translation work for most of the book has already been completed and dummy books will be prepared by Wednesday. “We are hoping to get the books published in the next two months so that they can reach PVTG children soon,” Chaturvedi said.
TRI director Ranendra said, “Till date languages like Santhali, Mundari, Kurukh, Ho and Kharia have been used to represent the tribal community.
This is for the first time that PVTG languages are being focused on so that it can be conserved.”
One of the translators for Malto language, Simon Malto who is a teacher at a Missionary School in Sahibgunj said that they are hoping that government includes the PVTG languages as a subject in schools.
