About Us
The Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages was established on 14th August of 2012. It was established for promotion and development of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages of the state namely i) Bishnupriya Manipuri, ii) Chakma, iii)Halam , iv) Kuki-Mizo, v) Manipuri , vi) Mog and vii) Garo Language.
Kokborok , the mother tongue of communities namely Debbarma (Tripuri) Reang, Tripura, Jamatia, Noatia, Kalai, Rupini, Murasing, Uchoi , is recognised as one of the State language of the State, Tripura. It got recognition as state language on 19th January, 1979. According to 2011 Census report the number of Kokborok speaking people is 8,80,537 which is 23.97% of the total population of the state.
More than 500 Books have been published in this language. Most of them are of Poetries, Short stories, Novels and Dramas , Essays and Reference books etc are fewer than the former. The Kokborok is being taught as a subject at University. Kokborok Text books, from classes I to VIII, are being prepared by the Directorate of Kokborok and Other Minority Languages and printed by SCERT. The text books, for classes IX, X, XI & XII, are being printed by this Directorate . Earlier these books were printed by the SCERT. Text-books of Kokborok languge for all classes are being distributed to the students free of cost by the Govt. of Tripura.
For providing education to the students in their mother tongue and also to develop & preserve different languages of the state of Tripura the Govt. of Tripura has set up the Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages in the year 2012. Since then the Directorate of Kokborok &OML has been promoting Kokborok & 7 other minority languages, namely – Chakma, Halam, Kuki-Mizo, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Manipuri, Garo & Mog as per the direction of the state government. The Directorate Kokborok & Other Minority Languages has performed various activities since it has come into existence.
Kokborok language has been already recognized as the State language of the State of Tripura in the year 1979. Till then Kokborok language is being taught at Class I-XII in various schools across the state of Tripura. It has been included at College level & Master Degree level as a subject. There is a separate Kokborok Department at Tripura Central University. In the year 2019 Ph.D in Kokborok language has also been introduced at Tripura University. Apart from this, the Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages, Govt. of Tripura, Education Department (School) has been continuously publishing Kokborok language literary books, supplementary books for schools students & literary magazines. Apart from this, Seminars workshops & teachers training for Kokborok language is also being organised by the Directorate.
The following Major activities are being performed by the Directorate of Development of Kokborok language since the Directorate has been established in the year 2012 –
Upto the Financial Year, 2020-2021 the Directorate has performed following activities for developing Kokborok language –
- Literary Magazines, “KHUMPUI” & “IMAGNI KHUMBER” – 6 nos. issues of each Magazines have been published till 2020.
- YAKPAI Magazine – 2 nos. issues have been published since the Financial Year 2020-2021.
- Literary Books – in total 36 nos. literary books of various writers have been published till 2021.
- Workshops / Seminar – in total 24 nos. workshops / Seminars on Kokborok language has been organised till 2020-21 Financial Year.
During the Financial Year, 2021-22 the Directorate has performed following activities for developing Kokborok language –
- 2 days Seminar on Kokborok Morphology language has been organized on 15-16th July,2021
- Training Program of Kokborok Language knowing teachers has been organized 23rd to 27th August 2021.
- 17 nos. literary books have been printed during the Financial Year 2021-22.
- Apart from this the Directorate has set up an Online Kokborok learning Program for All Government Officials / Staff (Group – A,B,C) and their family members. The said course has commenced from the month of January, 2022.
- Kokborok Teachers Handbook from class III –XII has been published during the Financial Year – 2021-22.
The following Minority Languages , namely, 1) Chakma, 2) Halam, 3) Garo , 4) Mog , 5) Kuki- Mizo, 6) Bishnupriya Manipuri and 7) Manipuri, are being taught as a subject at different schools of Tripura upto various levels. The schools where students of these 7 minority languges are present in good numbers these languages are being introduced as a subject. Text books of Minority Languages are prepared by the Directorate of Kokborok etc. The printing of books upto class VIII are done by the SCERT. Text-Books of these minority languages from Class IX-XII, are being prepared & printed by the Directorate of Kokborok & OML. Text-books of all the 7 other minority languages for all classes are being distributed to the students free of cost by the Govt. of Tripura.
The number of population of 7 other Minority Language speaking communities as given below (Census-2011) :-
1) Chakma - 79,813,
2) Halam – 57,210,
3) Garo - 12,952
4) Mog - 37,893 ,
5) Kuki-Mizo - 10,965 ,
6) Bishnupriya Manipuri – 21,716 and
7) Manipuri – 30,000
All of the Minority Languages are guided by the Advisory Committees constituted by the State Government for Development of concerned Languages and there are 8 ( Eight) Advisory Committees including the Kokborok. The Honorable Minister of Education etc. is Chairman of 2(Two) Advisory Committees namely, Manipuri and Bishnupriya Manipuri.The Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority Languages has been entrusted to look into the development of other minority languages of the state. In this regard at present 7 nos. minority languages, namely – Chakma, Halam, Kuki-Mizo, Garo, Mog, Manipuri & Bishnupriya Manipuri are being included under the Directorate. For the development of the 7 nos. other minority Languages following activities are been performed –
Upto the Financial Year, 2020-2021 the Directorate has performed following activities for developing 7 nos. other minority language –
- All these languages are being including at the school level as a subject for providing opportunities to the students of these language groups to learn their mother tongue. All the 7 minority languages of the state of Tripura are included at the school level for facilitating the students to learn their mother tongue.
- Literary Magazines of all the languages are being published on regular basis. These magazines are also distributed among students and community people and scholars of the language communities for wide publicity of the languages. Since the establishment of the Directorate it has been publishing minimum one issue of magazines of all the minority languages.
- Apart from this workshops /seminars and teacher trainings of the concerned languages are also being organised on regular basis. From 2012 to 2020 the Directorate has also organised 26 nos. workshops /seminars of the concerned minority languages for overall development of the languages.
- The Directorate is also publishing literary and other reference books of the concerned languages. Along with these supplementary books of the concerned languages are also being purchased by the Directorate. All these books are being distributed to the school students to encourage them to learn their mother tongue.
During the Financial Year, 2021-22 the Directorate has performed following activities for developing 7 nos. other minority language –
- Seminar on issues related to Halam language has been organised.
- Seminar on Bishnupriya Manipuri Language has been conducted on 22nd – 23rd September, 2021.
- Seminar of Garo language has conducted on 14th September, 2021.
- Seminar on Kuki-Mizo language has been organized on 5th -6th August, 2021.
- 7 days workshop on Chakma script has been organized on 28th June - 5th July, 2021.
- Training Program of Garo Language knowing teachers has been organised 21st to 25th September 2021.
- Training Program of Kuki-Mizo Language knowing Teachers has been organised on 16th September, 2021.
- Chakma language Short Story Book has been published.
- Halam Language DIALECTICAL THESAURUS has been published.
- Teachers Hand-book for Kuki-Mizo language class IX-X has been published.
- Bishnupriya Manipuri language Short Story Book & Poetry Book have been published.
Apart from the Directorate of Kokborok & Other Minority has launched MRP (Minor Research Project) for all minority languages of the state during the Financial Year, 2021-22. The researchers of all streams who wants to explore new field of studies related to Language, Literature, Art & culture or any other allied filed of Kokborok & 7 other minority languages, will be facilitated through this scheme with an grant of Rs. 1.00 lakh.