Bhubaneswar: People from Bhumij tribal community on Wednesday staged a rally in front of the state assembly here demanding official status to their mother-tongue Bhumij language and recognition of their script ‘Ol Onol’.
The tribals, mostly belong to Mayurbhanj and Balasore districts, took out a procession from railway station under the banner of Adim Sindhu Basi Bhumij Munda 9 Mahal and held a public meeting at Lower PMG, The Times of India reported.
Bhumij community leader Gulap Singh said language, culture and tradition of his community is unique and rich, but the state government has not recognized their language like Santali. “The state has started multilingual education (MLE) programme to teach tribal kids in their own mother-tongue in primary schools, but his language is not included in the programme because it lacks government recognition,” said Singh.
He said children of his community are now being educated in other languages. “Due to this problem, dropout rate is increasing in our tribe,” he added.
All India Bhumij education, social cultural council (AIBESCC) national president Sudarshan Bhumij said people from his community reside in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Assam. “Jharkhand government has recognized our language and appointed teachers in schools to teach our kids in Bhumij language, but Odisha government has not taken any step in this regard,” he said.
AIBESCC state president Anil Munda said the state government should recognize ‘Ol Onal’ script of their language and prepare study materials for Bhumij kids. “The state should appoint teachers from our community to teach kids in Bhumij language in primary schools,” he said.
The tribals also demanded broadcasting of their programmes in All India Radio and Doordarshan for promotion of their language.