AI set to give voice to endangered Aadi Vaani

In a bid to save endangered tribal languages and promote learning in mother tongue, the Centre is all set to launch Aadi Vaani - an AI-driven downloadable app for tribal languages. The app, designed to bridge the linguistic gap between English and Hindi and tribal languages, will have the facility of translation, a bilingual dictionary and important awareness material on problems like sickle cell anaemia.

The primary objective of the app is to make learning easier and make English and Hindi books accessible to tribal students in their own language. A beginning will be made in four tribal languages - Bhili, Mundari, Santhali and Gondi. This will be extended to include all tribal languages gradually.

A senior tribal affairs ministry official, who did not wish to be identified, told ET, "This will help in achieving the primary objective of the National Education Policy - learning and teaching in the mother tongue. NCERT books are available free online chapter by chapter. Any teacher or tribal student can get these chapters and then upload the file on the app to get translation in their tribal language."


The app will also have a text to speech facility, meaning that any text in English and Hindi will be translated into the available tribal language in audio format. This will help a person who cannot read the tribal language text in understanding any text in English or Hindi. "Initially, this text to speech facility will be available in Santhali alone. Gradually, it will be extended to other languages," said the official.

As per 1971 Census, any language spoken by less than 10,000 persons is considered endangered. A beta version of the app may be launched by President Draupadi Murmu on Sunday. The ministry has partnered with IIT Delhi, IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Naya Raipur and BITS Pilani for technological know-how. The language expertise has been provided by Tribal Research Institutes.

A senior official, involved in the project, told ET, "The app has been developed by students of these premier institutes within six months. This is ground-breaking as companies like Google are taking 5-6 years to develop such translation apps."

The app will have Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Mann Ki Baat speeches in the four tribal languages as well. The app will also have a feedback loop. In case of errors in translation which a user wants to point out, these can be done and the AI-integrated correction tool will pick these up and correct for next usage.