Centre completes mother tongue survey of 576 languages, to archive data
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has completed a mother tongue survey of 576 languages and dialects across the country. The survey data is complete with field videography of speech data, which will be archived.
According to the MHA’s annual report for 2021–22, it plans to set up a web archive at the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to preserve and analyse the original flavour of each indigenous mother tongue. For that, in-house linguists are arranging the linguistic data. Currently, it is being edited, the MHA said in the report.
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The Linguistic Survey of India (LSI) has been a regular research activity in the country since the 6th Five Year Plan, said the MHA. The Mother Tongue Survey of India (MTSI) project was a part of that.
Continued from earlier publications under this project, the volume on LSI Jharkhand has been finalised and that on LSI Himachal Pradesh is nearing completion. The field work of LSI Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh is going on.
The report says the videographed speech data of mother tongues will be uploaded on the NIC server for archiving.
Census to use advanced tech
The MHA also said several new initiatives will be taken for the smooth conducting of the upcoming census, which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The measures would include the use of advanced geospatial technology.
The pre-census mapping activities include the making and updating of maps showing the administrative units of the states and union territories, districts, sub-districts, villages, towns, and wards within towns. That will ensure proper coverage of the entire geographical area of the country.
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Work has also started on the modalities of sharing the Census results through web-based interactive maps. Some initiatives include buying or updating software for quick and efficient Census mapping and training all mapping manpower to use the latest software, the report said.
Maps and app ready
Jurisdictional changes after Census 2011 till December 31, 2019, have been updated in the geo-referenced database. Further updates are on, as the freezing date has been extended up to June 30, 2022.
More than 6 lakh maps (district, sub-district, and village) have been prepared and are being uploaded on the in-house portal for census functionaries. Those will be updated and finalised according to jurisdictional changes till June, 2022.
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The House Listing Block (HLB) Mobile Mapping App for geo-referencing of all enumeration blocks of the census has been introduced this time. National and master trainers have been taught to use it. The instructions manual on the use of the mapping app has been prepared in English, Hindi, and regional languages, the report said.
(With agency inputs)
