An Endeavour to Improve the Reading Skill of Tribal Children through Revival and Usage of Indigenous Adivasi Languages: My Experience in Mayurbhanj District, Odisha

Research says that language is the vehicle of communication. A person is able to express his inner feelings through his mother language. During the intervention of CARE India in Mayurbhanj, It was noticed that the languages such as Mundari and Ho were at risk of falling out of use due to the abundant use of the state language in the tribal area. It was clear from the earlier studies conducted by CARE India that oral language and vocabulary development is the base for improving the reading skill of children. CARE India also strongly believed that the reading skill of children can be improved by accessing the children to the age and grade specific supplementary reading materials developed in their mother tongue. Keeping this in view, an initiation was taken to develop some bilingual reading materials for the tribal children with support from the community people. Development of these materials not only helped improve the reading skill of children but also preserved and revived the Tribal languages from being extinct. This paper clearly states the methods adopted for conservation of the languages.