Delhi Based ‘Intellects’ Are Promoting Odia Language In Some Innovative Ways!
Convener and the brain behind the ‘Intellects’ Debendra Rout told MCL, ”Mother tongue is part of a child’s personal, social and cultural identity. It is this identity we get from speaking our mother tongue that enforces successful social patterns of acting and speaking, and make us unique and appealing in society. It is an indispensable instrument for development of intellectual and moral aspects of education. Habits, conducts, values, virtues, customs and beliefs are all shaped through mother tongue. Needless to say, weakness in the mother tongue means a paralysis of all thought and power of expression. Mother tongue reflects one’s culture and ethnic backgrounds. Encouraging young children to learn Odia language would help them develop confidence, self-esteem and a unique identity within a multicultural society. In this context, learning the mother tongue assumes greater importance for the Pravasi Odias.”
How It Works
Intellects has signed a contract with different educational institutions in Pravasi Odia dominated locality to run Odia classes in their premises on Sundays by paying them an appropriate amount of rent. They have opened open centers for “Asa Sikhiba Amari Bhasha” (Let’s learn our language) by using the existing infrastructure of the institutes. Intellects volunteers pass on the message to every Odia family and encourage them to take part in this mission. Odia classes are taken for two hours on every Sunday. Generally, the organisation provides all the study materials to the students.
‘Mera Bharat Mahaan’ Campaign
Another initiative carried out by the Intellects is “Mera Bharat Mahaan’ campaign. It is an attempt to shape the innovation and leadership quality of children in different spheres of life. It is a study exchange programme among students of privileged community and unprivileged groups. It aims to reduce social disparities between haves and have nots by mutual sharing of thought and knowledge.
Odisha My Vision
The Intellects is also making an endeavour to stir the minds of youngsters about what lies ahead for a better Odisha. The churning process is planned through essays and debates in their mother tongue. They call this initiative as ‘Odisha My Vision’. This is a state wide programme to involve each and every educational institution right from block level to state level and from higher secondary students to post graduate students. The ideas for a developed Odisha are being collected from students, intellectuals and teachers across the state which will be produced as vision documents for Odisha. It will be a first ever attempt to involve directly the students and teachers in the policy making process.
Fragrance Of Odisha
Intellect also makes an attempt to find the genius brains through a ‘Math Wizard Search’. The idea is to felicitate and encourage them to excel in future. This activity motivates small innovative minds to do great things in future. The other interesting and unique initiative of the Intellects is ‘Fragrance of Odisha‘ through which they promote the music and dance festivals of Odisha. The Intellects is also working on a concept called ‘Smart Farming’. It is a dream project which is all about rural employment, agricultural marketing development and better institutional credit for small and marginal farmers. This model is better fit for less developed states like Odisha, UP, Bihar and West Bengal. This model aims to break the vicious circle of poverty of farmers. It aims at developing a system through which rural employment will be generated, agricultural produce will be valued properly at village level, rural people will get better food products at their door steps at a low price and real income of farmers will rise.
Amari Bhasha Pathe
The Intellects recently organised a three day conclave, “Amari Bhasha Pathe: Lang Fest 2017“, celebrating the third anniversary of classical status to Odia language and World Mother Tongue Day in Delhi. Odia language was accorded the ‘Classical language’ status by the Government of India on 20th February 2014 and is the sixth language in the country to get this status and the first from the Indo-Aryan linguistic group.
The conclave witnessed experts, linguists and domain leaders from all classical languages (Sanskrit, Telegu, Malayalm, Tamil, Kannada and Odia) along with other popular languages like Hindi and English sharing their insight and opinions.
