Addressing the closing ceremony, Commissioner-cum-Secretary of ST, SC Development, M & BCW Department Roopa Roshan Sahoo underscored the importance of documenting tribal languages, identities, and cultures. She assured the tribal community of the department’s unwavering support in creating interventions that will further amplify the production of indigenous knowledge.

Sahoo also proposed organising district and block-level writers’ conclaves in partnership with Special Development Councils (SDCs) to encourage grassroots tribal writers.

More than 80 writers and intellectuals representing diverse tribal communities, including Santal, Munda, Binjhal, Kandha, Saora, Desia, Kolha, Ho, Khadia, Juang, Gadaba, Bhumija, Orang, and Gond, shared their valuable manuscripts and insights. The event illuminated the potential for communities and the state to co-create transformative futures.

Director of ST & Member Secretary, ATLC Indramani Tripathy announced a groundbreaking digitisation initiative, which will not only encompass the manuscripts collected during the event but also those shared by the communities with the Academy in the future.

Inspired by the success of the Odisha Virtual Academy’s Utkal Prasanga model, the digitisation process will make these invaluable manuscripts available to the public domain, revitalizing and safeguarding indigenous languages in the process, he said.

Assistant Director of ATLC Samarendra Bhutia elucidated the ongoing process of digitising manuscripts contributed by writers from various tribal communities emphasizing the department’s commitment to languages and cultures-driven governance and highlighted upcoming interventions aimed at preserving the rich heritage of these communities.

Among others, Coordinator of SAMHATI Dr. Paramananda Patel, Deputy Director of SCSTRTI Santosh Rath, Research Assistant of ATLC Dr. Sanjukta Moharana, Panchali Sahu and Bhagyarathi Panda were present.

The training covered a wide range of topics related to tribal welfare including history and culture of tribal communities, scheme of government and programmes for tribal development, and legal framework governing tribal rights.

Commissioner-cum-Secretary of SSD Department Roopa Roshan Sahoo addressed the participants and felicitated them with mementos in the presence of Director, SCSTRTI Indramani Tripathy and other senior officials of the department during the closing ceremony.

She congratulated the newly recruited Assistant Directors and wished them best of luck in their future endeavor. She advised and gave importance how the Tribal Welfare Department is playing a vital role in the development of the tribal communities. She urged the Assistant Directors to work with full dedication and commitment to augment the cause and welfare of tribal communities in future.

The SCSTRTI, Bhubaneswar (TRI, Odisha) has already taken a leading role in imparting training within our state. This time outside state officials of other states are being given orientation program. The SC & ST tribe populations of all states may be more or less of same category but a few new tribes are confined to a particular state. This type of inter-state orientation training program of different officials and employees will strengthen the bonding of tribal culture. This is the beginning of inter-state capacity building training program and will give impetus to submit new proposals to MoTA, Government of India, which will indirectly fulfill the motto of Tribal Welfare Department, sources said.

The participants also got an opportunity to interact with different resource experts and learn from the experiences of these experts. The trainees visited the State Tribal Museum, Library and PVTG Gallery etc. inside the campus.