New Delhi/Bhubaneswar, Sept 29: Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his ‘Maan Ki Baat’ on Sunday,drew public attention towards Ramjit Tudu, a tribal boy of Odisha for his digital innovation of Santhali dialect.
The PM heaped praises on Ramjit, an aboriginal of the Mayurbhanj district, for his industrious venture to conserve, promote and digitize the Santhali language with the help of Information Technology(IT) tools.
Modi during the 114 edition of his Maan Ki Baat said, “There are some languages which are used by a very few people. One such language is our ‘Santhali‘language. A campaign has been started to give a new identity to Santhali with the help of digital innovation”.
Modi said that Ramjit has developed a digital platform, where people can read Santhali literature and also write in the language.
“Actually, a few years ago when Ramjit ji started using the mobile phone, he was saddened by the fact that he could not send messages in his mother tongue. After that, he started exploring the possibilities of typing ‘Ol Chiki’, script of the Santhali language. With the help of some of his friends, he developed the technique of typing in ‘Ol Chiki’. Today, due to his efforts, articles written in Santhali language are reaching millions of people.”
The PM said that Santhali is spoken by the people of the Santhal tribe community residing in many states. “Apart from India, the tribal communities speaking Santhali are also present in Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan,” he added.
Ramjit, a 28-year-old techie, has been creating a digital identity for Santhali language for the last one decade. He has digitized Santali by creating tools like Ol Chiki Tech, Santali Wikipedia, and the e-magazine Birmali. He has also provided a digital platform to writers in the language. He is also working on an open-source data collection initiative that is focused on empowering language technologies for English-Santali.
