The Ministry of Tribal Affairs commenced a three-day National Conclave on Tribal Languages & Museums in Mysuru, Karnataka on August 24, 2026. The event brings together policymakers, linguists, researchers, technologists, and tribal community representatives to deliberate on documentation and revitalization of tribal languages and strengthening tribal and Tribal Freedom Fighter Museums across India.
Key announcements included the launch of the upgraded Adi Vaani platform with new iOS application and addition of five new languages, along with the introduction of the platform's official logo. The Ministry also launched "Jago", an AI conversational assistant with a mascot, designed to make information on tribal welfare schemes, programmes, initiatives and repositories more accessible through an intelligent interface.
A significant development was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) for language documentation and corpus development, under which CIIL will support and share data with the Ministry on tribal languages.
The Tribal Welfare Department of Karnataka, together with the Karnataka State Tribal Research Institute, released Karnataka Primers in tribal languages including the Primer of Jenukuruba for Class 1 (covering Kannada, Maths, EVS), along with Sannivesha, Pragiti Nota, and Thattegalu flashcards.
The conclave featured three panel discussions covering documentation and community-led revitalization of tribal languages, technological tools for language preservation (including automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech, machine translation, and corpus building), and multilingual education for tribal students focusing on pedagogy, content, and outcomes. Four Tribal Research Institutes from Kerala, Odisha, Sikkim, and Jharkhand presented their best practices in language preservation.
The event was attended by approximately 150 participants from across states and included dignitaries such as Shri Durga Das Uikey (Union Minister of State for Tribal Affairs), Sri Raghumurthy (Karnataka Tribal Welfare Minister), and Shri Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar (MP, Mysuru Constituency). The conclave will continue with further discussions on tribal community needs and the adoption of the Mysuru Declaration on August 25, 2026.