New Delhi: To strengthen efforts toward recording, preserving and promoting tribal languages across India, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs held the first meeting of the Working Group on Tribal Languages on October 15, 2026. The primary focus of the discussion was the progress of ‘Adi Vani’, a digital platform developed by IIT Delhi in collaboration with the Ministry to facilitate the translation and documentation of tribal languages.
Chaired by Ministry Secretary Ranjana Chopra, the meeting brought together linguists, academics, researchers and community language practitioners to discuss a coordinated roadmap for preserving tribal languages.
The meeting reviewed the progress of Adi Vaani, a digital platform developed by IIT Delhi in collaboration with the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Adi Vaani currently supports text-to-text translation in nine tribal languages and offers speech, optical character recognition (OCR) and video subtitling features. It also provides access to more than 300 primers prepared by Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs).
State TRIs have contributed around 13.9 lakh text sentences in 10 languages and nearly 300 hours of speech data. Adi Vaani has recorded over 48,000 Android downloads and approximately 6,500 monthly users. IIT Delhi sought the Working Group’s support in validating language data, standardising spellings and developing specialised vocabulary for future pilot projects.
The working group will focus on creating a national database of tribal languages, documenting oral traditions, developing educational material and strengthening collaboration among research institutions, universities, and tribal communities.
The members proposed creating community-driven digital archives, training researchers in local languages and increasing the use of tribal languages in education (including within Eklavya Model Residential Schools). The Ministry will develop a roadmap for further action, with a special emphasis on ensuring that tribal communities retain ownership of the linguistic resources developed in collaboration with them.
(PIB)
