Striving to protect Koya language from slow death in Alluri Sitarama Raju district in Andhra Pradesh
The Hindu
Two full-time volunteers Tellam Krishna and Moosam Satyanarayana have been visiting government schools in tribal belt to teach Koya language to children. They want to protect the language from slow death.
For over a year, a visit to the government schools with Koya tribal children has been an integral part of the life of Tellam Krishna.
In his 40s, Koya tribal teacher Krishna has a mission that every Koya child must learn Koya language and protect it from the ‘slow death’. The language is also known as the Gondi language, mostly in Central India.
On the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, celebrated on August 9, Mr. Krishna told The Hindu, “I have been covering 110 schools in the Koya tribal belt along the Godavari and Sabari rivers in Alluri Sitarama Raju district. My prime task is to teach rhymes, and proverbs to the children in the Koya language.”
The children are told to communicate in the Koya language with their family and the village. However, the children are also encouraged to pursue their regular academic activity in Telugu and English mediums.
Mr. Krishna and Moosam Satyanarayana are the two full-time volunteers who have been visiting the 150 government schools in the Koya tribal belt under the Koya language project. The project is being run by Koiturbata and Samata, which are Andhra Pradesh-based NGOs.
Based in Ramannagudem near Chintoor, the Koiturbata had been credited with educating nearly 3,000 Koya tribal youths who dropped out of school between 2001 and 2013.
“The Koya society had already been exposed to new cultures and traditions. This leads to the fragmentation of the Koya culture and traditions very soon. Language is an identity of any land. Rehabilitation of the Koyas from their ancestral land to make way for the Polavaram irrigation project is arguably a major threat to the language,” observed G. Yadaiah, an authority on Koya language and culture.
Pune luxury car crash: Police custody for Shivani and Vishal Agarwal in destruction of evidence case
Shivani and Vishal Agarwal remanded to police custody for swapping blood samples in luxury car crash case.