Bhasha Research and Publication Centre
GO TO PAGE
IDEA
3
BHASHA’S JOURNEY
6
IMPACT
ADIVASI ACADEMY
8
PURVA PRAKASH
17
BUDHAN THEATRE
20
HIMLOK
26
PLSI
28 30
A
tree grows strong
and stout, deep rooted, with widely spread branches, providing shade, and fruits, making the surroundings fresh and cool. Although, we always see what is obvious and fail to remember that once it was just a tiny seed, which grew huge through years of survival; the efforts behind it and the factors which helped its very being, are all hidden facts. ‘Bhasha Research and Publication Centre’ is like a huge tree which grew up from a thought, an idea or a concept of a few individuals. The simple idea gradually became a great organization which is now a helping hand to so many people. The primary idea of the organization was to undertake study and research in adivasi languages, art and culture in order to protect them. During this attempt, a demand arose of an organizational structure to handle these things more effectively. This brought Bhasha to life in 1996. ‘Bhasha’ the name itself speaks a lot about the organization and its purposes. The term denotes ‘language’ or ‘speech’, in most of the Indian languages and it connotes ‘voice’; a voice of the tribal who spoke for the tribal people aiming at their economic empowerment and the human rights protection; with many people’s support and cooperation. To study about the adivasi societies and to preserve their languages, first it was necessary to know the concerned people in depth. During this attempt, it generated some other realizations came into light about the tribes; which are the real problems faced by them, which could make their culture perish and could even end up in making their very existence a big trouble. 4
Bhasha actually recognized the major issues the people faced like illiteracy, food security, forced migration, health issues, indebtedness, etc. So, Bhasha naturally decided to weld together the aesthetic and the socioeconomic concerns in its efforts, instead of a purely academic study of an adivasi language or a merely aesthetic appreciation of the adivasi art. During the growth of Bhasha in these 16 years, the idea ran deep into the people’s life and their issues, dealing with various barriers to achieve the desired results. As time passed, the tree grew large and high covering so many problematic areas of the society and branched out into different places in India. The organization works at present in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. What makes Bhasha different? Like a tree providing shade for us without any conditions or prior intensions. Bhasha tries to make the adivasi people stand on their own instead of just helping them occasionally with food or clothing, knowing those are all temporary remedies for their problems. Bhasha’s notion of helping them is entirely different which is evident in most of the activities that it has undertaken. Bhasha always wanted to make the tribal people self reliant, so that they could tackle the problems they face. All the efforts of the organization are to reach this goal; to create a positive impact on the society by its presence.
5
16 years of Bhasha’s Journey..
A
n idea, sprouted in the mind of a person, Dr. Ganesh Devy, through many realizations. In 1996 it took form of an Organisation bringing together activists who thought alike and understood the value of it. Gradually the Bhasha Research Publication Centre established, many groups of
people, the marginal tribes, all over India were brought under the same shade with an aim of protecting their culture and language by the protection of the people itself through helping them to be self-reliant. When one works with the adivasis one just cannot escape the pain and misery surrounding their existence. The tribals faces so many problems; which were ever unnoticed; such as serious health issues, unavailability of required help from the respective authorities, the land alienation due to the stringent forest act, the forced migration to the construction labour market since employment opportunities as well as agricultural irrigation are not sufficiently available, the loss of land and valuables due to high interest rates put by money lenders. Most of these problems occurred due to lack of knowledge and illiteracy; ends in poverty. These problems leave adverse effects on the people and thus their cultures perish and languages die. Since its establishment in 1996, Bhasha Centre has worked with nomadic communities and adivasis (the indigenous peoples) of India. Language, Arts, Education and Development have been the main areas of Bhasha’s research and community work. It has been involved in the documentation of tribal languages and literature, conservation and promotion of tribal arts, education, research and training, socioeconomic empowerment and health care. Bhasha is concentrated in the conservation of All Indian Languages including the non-scheduled tribal languages for which a survey is being carried on throughout India known as PLSI (Peoples Linguistic Survey of India).
7
ADIVASI ACADEMY
“In 1984 I had planned to set up a school in an adivasi village; but I could not. In 1987-88 I took up relief work in drought hit Savli-villages, but had to give it up. In 1992, I thought I would start travelling through the adivasi villages collecting their songs and stories; but I did not. At last in 1996 my body, mind, family and financial condition together gave a go ahead.” - Dr.Ganesh Devy Bhasha Trust established the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh in 1999. Tejgadh is entirely a tribal area that falls in the eastern belt of Gujarat, and western belt of Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. The location came to be apt for Bhasha’s works. As it was a transition area of three different cultures as it is in the border line areas of three different States. The Academy is situated on a beautiful 10 acre piece of land at the foot of the Koraj Hill. An unexpected gain was that it turned to be an archaeological site containing prehistoric rock paintings and a medieval fortification has been found near the campus. From 2000, they have been teaching the young men and women of the area, a subject that was named ‘Tribal Studies’, by which it meant “The study and understanding of how the adivasis perceive the world.” The attempt was to make those students reflect on their own situation, motivate them and to put them onto the great task of empowering the adivasi villages by helping them to be self-reliant. The Academy offers Diploma Courses in Tribal Studies, Art and Culture, and Culture and Development; and short term training in Micro-Finance, Tribal Rights, Food-Security and Development, Publication and Rural Journalism, Tribal Arts and Museum Studies, Sustainable Agriculture and Forestry, Community Health care and Rural 8
Organisation Management. As a rule, we do not hold examinations. The students are required to go out in the tribal villages and set up Self Help Groups, Food-Grain Banks, Water Banks, promote the use of Solar Energy, Organic Farming, Special Training Centres (STC), Craft Training and Health care. Based on their experience of field work, the students are required to write dissertations. On the way to Tejgadh, its quiet a peaceful journey viewing the green patches of trees and plants vanishing into the dry golden land with growing crops, heated up in the hot summer sun. At the end of the journey; an area of land separated by fence; holding an attractive red-brick building within it which almost blends into the village’s simplicity. The Academy consists of different sections; mainly The Museum of Voice named ‘Vaacha’, Workshop and Library are situated in a red-brick building named Bhasha which was blessed by Smt. Mahashweta Devy (a great writer and activist) on 15th August 2004. The building acts as a metaphor emphasising the academy’s objectives. The multicoloured open windows in the Library signifying the windows to knowledge, which open for the tribal communities. 9
It holds about 40,000 books, the relevant print and audio-visual resource on tribal societies endangered languages and related sociological issues and has at present about 48,000 titles. The Workshop: a platform set open supplied with fresh air and day light; for practising artists and craft persons and for documenting their art practices. The Vaacha Museum; is set up in the portion of the building with a central courtyard; is to document, hold and dynamically display the adivasi expressions, both artistic and cultural, in the form of objects, artefacts, performances and digitised multimedia images. It is conceptualized as a unique Museum of Voice and the largest resource centre of Tribal Culture in India. The buildings are designed by architect Karan Grover, combining features of local architecture and historical monuments found in the area. The buildings are eco friendly, earthquake or flood resistant and built in the best local style. Chaitanya & Vikas: The Academy’s community work is housed in Chaitanya and Vikas which are a complex created for consultations, health care services, food grain banks and rooms for short term visitors.
10
Samveg: All educational activity at the Academy takes place in open fields. The only class-room at the Academy is a small but beautiful structure, open to the sky at the centre, which was designed and built by the faculty and students of the Academy. It is given the name Samvega to indicate the ‘fluidity of the intellect’ in knowledge transactions. Organic Farming: The Academy has created on its campus an organic farm for experimentation of new methods of organic cultivation. In order to enhance agricultural activities a model of water resource management has been set up that includes rain water harvesting and check dam. Through such projects, the students as well as the people of other regions are being benefited. The Adivasi Academy is not a place for any cutting-edge theoretical knowledge. It is meant for forging out strategies for improving the lives and the economic condition of the adivasis, for building durable and sustainable assets for the community, for bringing respect to their cultural heritage and to provide a forum and a space for defending adivasi rights and voicing their concerns in an idiom of their own. Development Services Centres (Gram Vikas Kendra) As Bhasha launched its research and documentation of the adivasi languages the associates of Bhasha came to interact closely with the adivasis and learn about their harsh conditions and everyday struggles. Viewing the need and significance of economic empowerment in preserving adivasi culture and society, Bhasha decided to broaden the scope of its work in 1999 to include the micro credit programme. A year later Bhasha decided to integrate social empowerment with economic betterment and undertook new projects that aimed to address issues of health, children’s education and migration that are crucial to the empowerment and survival of adivasi community. In later years, several other programmes were initiated. Finally in June 2002 Bhasha established Development Services Centres (DSCs) for implementation and extension of Bhasha’s preceding development work. Since then the DSCs service villages and monitor the various community-based activities. The DSCs 11
have become the core for economic empowerment and social justice in the adivasi areas of Gujarat. The major programmes carried out under the DSC are Prakriti, Vidya, Chotro and Micro-credit. Prakriti: The Prakriti Programme began with the aim to address health problems among adivasis more specifically that of sickle cell anaemia and Tuberculosis. Adivasi areas have little access to health care and there are not enough health workers available. Hence there was a need to look for approaches outside the clinic and hospital setting. Bhasha decided to achieve this through community participation and providing need based health care. Under the Prakriti programme, both general and specialized health camps are held in the DSC villages. The camps are held after an initial survey of the health status of the village, its proximity to the local primary health centre and need for medical intervention. These camps have enabled doctors to identify and address serious cases of accidents, heart, cancer, tuberculosis and sickle cell. The health camps organized under Prakriti are meant to fulfil the immediate medical needs of the adivasis and nomads; and thus serve as means through which Bhasha can carry its message of health care to these communities. Clinic at Tejgadh; In order to provide regular access to follow up on health cases brought up at health camps and to provide regular access to medical services and advise, a weekly clinic was started at Tejgadh in 2003. The clinic runs every Saturday and Sunday; draws individuals from a range of 50-60 km. The Vidya programme: Aims to improve the education of tribal children. There are so many children whose education has been ceased due to the reasons like the migration of the parents for labour, lack of awareness of the parents about the advantages of education, children who are forced to be in labour works in order to support their families, ineffective government schools, and so on. Special Training Centres (STC): To solve such issues Bhasha has set up nonformal centres according to their needs. Tribal children are often alienated from the mainstream education due to language disparities. In the STC’s the students are 12
instructed in their mother languages. The timings of the classes are flexible, so as not to exclude working children. Community teachers are employed in the centres so that they understand the children and can develop bond with them. Vasantshala: the non-formal residential school set up for children from migratory families on the Academy’s campus, was created with the purpose of providing adivasi children from migrating families who have been either been pushed out or have missed going to school, an opportunity to reintegrate with the formal schools. Vasantshala has been an extremely successful experiment in non-formal education for adivasi children. 13
The Vidya programme provides opportunities for children to be reintegrated into government primary schools. This occurs through the STC’s and Vasantshala, the residential school at the Adivasi Academy which caters for children from migratory families. Through this initiative 17,000 students have gained admission to government primary schools. Apart from this, Bhasha Publications has launched a magazine Purva Para, based on education and society. This bimonthly magazine is extremely useful as resource material for the teachers of the Vidya programme. The Bol magazine for children reaches out to 10,000 government schools of Gujarat. Bhasha published Pictorial Glossaries in eight adivasi languages of Gujarat as educational material for children and facilitating communication between teachers and students. Pictorial dictionaries, glossaries as well as relevant study materials are published in Adivasi languages accommodate children and non adivasi teachers in Adivasi areas. Along with these activities, The Vidya programme spreads awareness among communities to sensitize parents about the importance of education. Regular teacher training sessions are also held at the Adivasi Academy in which traditional cultural tools as well as IT based learning is combined. Teaching through oral means is invariably emphasized in these sessions. Chotro programme: Many adivasis migrate to the cities to search for alternative sources of income. Most end up working at construction sites where exploitation is common. To address this problem the Development Services Centres are working to mobilize migrant adivasi labourers and address issues of exploitation and human rights violation. A survey of 2200 migratory labourers has been conducted to study their migration cycle, place of work, occupational hazards, wages, terms of contractual employment and problems experienced due to migration. Village level meetings are regularly held to discuss the effects of migration and adivasi migrant labourers 14
have been organized to form a federation of their own. This federation helps to solve the problems of migrant labourers such as harassment, exploitation, ill treatment, no payment of wages etc. Micro-credit programme: In order to sustain rural economy and social structures by reducing dependency on private money lenders whose charge interest rates ranging between 60 to 120 per cent, checking outward migration and creating livelihood opportunities using local and traditional resources, the Academy has set up the micro-credit and micro-enterprise programs. The program is aimed at checking outward migration and creating livelihood opportunities using local and traditional resources. Initiated in 1999, the micro finance network presently has 2450 active self help groups and reaches close to 62,000 people in seven districts of Gujarat. These groups have transactions of over 18 crore Rupees. In the past year 12,000 members of nomadic communities have also been linked to the micro finance program.
15
of an ‘outsider’. Its publications are a serious intervention for recognition of oral traditions as a form of knowledge. Bhasha’s effort over the years to provide a platform to adivasi writers has led to the emergence of a literary awakening among the communities. To give further energy to the movement, Bhasha has created a new wing for its publication activity by the name Purva Prakash. ‘Purva Prakash’, ‘Purva’ meaning east and ‘patti’ signifying belt, evoke both, the knowledge traditions of the eastern adivasi belt of Gujarat as well as of the eastern world. Bhasha and Purva Prakash have published books in thirty four tribal languages as well as in the scheduled languages: Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and English. Purva Prakash offers a platform for alternative literature, focusing on issues related to communities that stand on the fringe of the mainstream and sensitizes society through literature as an agent of social change.
PURVA PRAKASH
Bhasha’s publications do not engage in an anthropological study of adivasis from the perspective
The work on documentation of languages began with the work on a series of Tribal literature in Translation. Subsequently, many adivasi writers and scholars approached Bhasha with the idea of starting a magazine in their own language, aimed at the adivasi communities and to be read out rather than for individual reading. Bhasha accepted the idea. The magazine was called ‘Dhol’ (the drum), a term that has a totemic cultural significance for the adivasis. The response to the magazine was tremendous. More adivasis approached Bhasha, and asked for versions of Dhol in their own languages. In two years time Dhol started appearing in ten adivasi languages of western India. When the first issue of Dhol in the Chaudhary language was released, it sold 700 copies on the first day. This was a record of sorts for a little magazine. Inspired by the success of the oral magazine, our adivasi collaborators started bringing to Bhasha, manuscripts of their autobiographies, poems, essays and even anthropological studies of their communities which they wanted us to publish. 17
Later, Dhol was published in about ten non-scheduled languages. These languages had no tradition of writing earlier. Those languages were written using the Gujarati scripts; its translations in Marathi and Hindi for the non-tribal people who are interested in reading them. Thus, by providing scripts to adivasi languages of Gujarat and bringing them in print in the Dhol magazine and other publications for adivasis. Bhasha had brought together the written and the oral languages to a same platform. Subsequently, in order to highlight the oral nature of adivasi culture, Bhasha launched a weekly radio magazine which was relayed throughout the adivasi areas of Gujarat and Maharashtra. All these initiatives together gave birth to a small but focused publishing and book distribution house, which now works under the name ‘Purva Prakash’, and which is the first community owned publishing programme for adivasis and nomadic communities of India. It is not so much a commercial venture as a cultural and literary platform for intellectual concerns and a forum for expression in people’s own languages.
18
BUDHAN THEATRE
History of DNTs Can anyone imagine a situation where we are mistaken as a thief, and if it is just because we were born to a particular community? A group of nomadic people “notified” by the government as criminals in 1871. The British labelled them criminals because they pursued a nomadic way of life. The nomadic tribes traditionally carried important commodities such as salt and honey between the coasts and the inland forests. The British relied on these networks to establish their own trading relationships and to guide their armies through unknown regions. Indeed, these traders and transporters of goods were crucial informants for the new rulers, who benefited from tribal knowledge of flora and fauna, transportation and communication. As railways and telegraphs were built in the 1850s such networks became redundant. The colonial authorities grew nervous about people who moved around, carrying intelligence they could not control directly. In the aftermath of the Revolt of 1857 these former allies were seen as potential enemies. In 1871, an Act was passed for “the notification of criminal tribes.”
Hundreds of tribes that traditionally collected food from the forest became criminals with the stroke of a pen. When they could not be forcibly settled, they were sometimes shot on sight. Those who were settled were subjected to a pass system to control their movements and were rehabilitated through rigorous labour. These criminal tribes were properly de-notified in 1952 after India’s independence. But they were reclassified as “habitual offenders” in 1959. The stigma of the criminal label still follows them to this day. Many laws and regulations in various states prohibit certain communities of people from travelling; others must still register at police stations in the districts they pass through. This close association with authority makes nomadic tribes especially liable to suspicion when crimes actually occur. The 20
percentage of DNTs in custody and under investigation is greatly disproportionate to their population. There are almost 151 notified castes, a population of some 60 million can be found throughout India today.
A moving story of a grave social injustice.. Denotified tribals are often tortured and killed in police custody. Budhan, who belonged to the Sabar community in the Purulia District of West Bengal, was killed in February 1998. When the Kheria Sabar Welfare Samiti and their leader, the noted Bangla writer Mahasveta Devy, arranged a post-mortem, it became clear that Budhan had died of a severe beating (rather than suicide) in police custody. The Samiti filed a case in the Calcutta High Court and Mahasveta Devy went to Baroda to deliver the annual Verrier Elvin Lecture at the Bhasha Research centre. As a result of her speech on denotified tribes at this momentous time, Mahasveta Devy, Laxman Gaikwad and Dr.Ganesh Devy founded the Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Group and began a long journey through many states to meet DNTs in person, to create a national campaign for the protection of the human rights of the DNTs. Thus started a journey called Budhan. Bhasha became their voice and made their words reach the authorities and to the people. In May of that year they visited Chharanagar, Ahmedabad, met the Chhara DNTs, and their set up a library of revolutionary and cultural literature. A group of young men and women associated themselves with the centre and started to write and produce short plays relating to social reform. After a legal battle, in July the Calcutta High Court decided the Budhan Sabar murder case, activists Mahasweta Devy won the case on behalf of Budhan’s wife Shayamali Sabar and Dr.Ganesh Devy printed the text of the verdict in Budhan. The Theatre Group read the text and resolved to produce a play at the first national conference, which 21
was ultimately attended by more than a thousand delegates including such scholars as Romila Tapar and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. The play made a profound impact on the audience, and the group subsequently performed it at major venues in New Delhi, Bhopal, Baroda, Pune, and Bombay. Each time they did so, they modified parts of the Script, so while the play was written by Dakshin Bajrange, it can truly be said to come straight from the oral tradition of the tribal theatre. It is not an imaginary perception of suffering; it is based on the lived, traumatic experience of being branded as a criminal. Budhan Theatre has also performed street plays to raise awareness about the condition of the denotified tribes. It was like a movement for the liberation of the DNTs. It’s not a protest, not as activism. It was focused to generate awareness to the outside world about the positive side of the DNT communities. Budhan Theatre actors have adopted theatre as a medium to change their lives and their identity as “born criminals” to “born actors”. Bhasha had opened up a long festering wound. As a leading campaigner Bhasha had to give a very serious thought to turning the anger and frustration among the demonized, brutalized and politically vandalized DNTs into a constructive energy. In order to contain the anger, 24
Bhasha decided to use the most ancient method of getting people angry without making them destructive, which is ‘theatre’. Our experience of handling the violence within the minds of these communities has left us firmly convinced that theatre is probably the most powerful cultural means of sensitizing communities about the mutual entanglement and dependence of economic, social and cultural rights of several competing and clashing social sectors. The performances of the theatre influenced so many people and made them think. People spoke and wrote about DNTs positively. Thus the theatre became a tool for their development, bringing them dignity. The DNT rights campaign of Bhasha resulted into setting up of a national commission by the Government of India. Additionally, a Technical Advisory Group (TAG) was created by the Prime Minister’s office. Dr.Ganesh Devy chaired the TAG and prepared a comprehensive report for the Government, which was used for bringing in a new legislation and a comprehensive social security scheme for DNTs.
Dakxin Bajrange Chhara: “I am often told `your performance is so realistic’. I say `yes, it’s because it comes from personal experience’.” 25
HIMLOK
After completing 10 years of work documenting tribal languages, arts and culture and the creation of a tribal museum, library, health clinic, an adivasi academy and numerous development initiatives in over 2000 villages within Gujarat, in 2006 Bhasha has decided to extend its work to encompass the area of the Himalayas and the Himalayan communities; created an Institute called ‘Himlok’ located at Kalpa,
Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh. ‘Himlok’ is set up for conservation, documentation, study, research in the area of Himalayan Studies and undertaking of cultural and ecological conservation or large-scale field studies and projects of development. Himlok has initiated community development in the Kalpa and Keylong areas. A survey was carried out at Kalpa, Roghi and Warangi villages in Kinnaur District of Himachal Pradesh for training to be imparted to women on gender, health and livelihood issues. Bhasha has completed the interior designing work at the Keylong Museum assigned to it by the Government of Himachal Pradesh. Bhasha had signed an MOU with the Department of Art, Culture and Language of Himachal Government to run the Keylong Museum for another three years from 2010 to 2012. 26
PLSI
The People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI) was initiated in 2010 by Prof. G.N. Devy at the Language Confluence hosted by Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodara and envisions the creation of a Linguistic Survey rooted in people’s perception of language. Conceived as a project to capture how people identify, name and perceive what they speak, the survey in its published form will also contain the stories of people’s origin, dispersal and relationship with the neighbouring cultures. PLSI as a nationwide, authentic and a comprehensive survey carried out by members of respective speech communities, writers, cultural activists, scholars of intangible heritage, practitioners of oral arts and traditions, responsible citizens interested in working out alternate ways of development and scholars who believe in maintaining organic links between scholarship and the social context. It is a right based movement for carrying out a nation-wide survey of Indian languages as people perceive them, to identify, document and understand them; especially languages of fragile communities such as nomadic, coastal, island, hill and forest communities. The main objectives of the PLSI are: To provide an overview of the living languages of India as evolved by 2011 and as perceived by people. To create an action network of members, committed to sustainable development and of community custodians of life-enhancing knowledge systems and traditions, irrespective of diverse social and cultural contexts. To avert extinction of linguistic, cultural and biological diversity, nurtured trans-generationally by speech communities. To build bridges among diverse language communities, and thereby, strengthen foundations of multilingual, puricultural Indian society and strengthen the process of building India as a single linguistic and culture area. To build closer links between the government and linguistic 28
communities, and to bring universal developmental strategies of the government in harmony with diverse ecological and cultural contexts. To develop teaching material and capability for promoting education in mother tongue. To provide a baseline for any future survey of India’s linguistic and cultural heritage. To protect one of the few surviving bastions of linguistic diversity in the world, in the interest of human security and survival. The PLSI is not A repeat, substitute, replacement or a sequel to Grierson’s Linguistic Survey of India, or a sample survey or part of Census survey. It is not an exhaustive survey of each and every language in existence in India. It is not an exercise in standardizing or fixing the writing or the speech of Indian Language communities. The PLSI is A quick, non-hierarchical, public consultation and appraisal, intended as an aid to cultural impact assessment of development, and as an acknowledgement of the self-respect and sense of identity of all, especially, endangered speech communities of India.
29
IMPACT
B
hasha put forward numerous opportunities for the tribal people who were alienated from the main stream society. Most of the experiments carried out by Bhasha have reached its goal by benefiting them. Apart from the major aim of protecting the tribal languages, Bhasha got
involved in more humanitarian activities. Bhasha realized that it was necessary to treat the disease not the symptom. For that, many ideas took shape in the forms of institutions and activities to make sure the well being of the people, the only way to make their language and culture survive. This approach is the uniqueness of the organization, positively affected the people and their language and culture. Every activity of Bhasha brought great changes to the respective areas. Bhasha analysed the problematic areas and worked for it. The people were facilitated with educational opportunities, better health care, better financial position, and better lifestyle. This was made possible by creating several development service centres which worked for the tribal issues, the tribal people themselves were trained to carry on the developmental works. Many tribals migrated from their home land leaving behind their rich culture and ended up as construction workers who struggled to meet their daily needs. Their children lacked education. They suffered of diseases and debts. All these problems was taken into consideration when Bhasha introduced its major programmes like Prakriti, Vidya, Chotro and micro credit which were handled by the DSCs. These development works are carried out all over Gujarat, in about 120 tribal villages. The activities are handled by a group of tribals itself that are trained for it. Through these programmes, many adivasi children are back into the formal schooling after the training from STCs. The people started getting access to medical services. The indigenous professions are encouraged and promoted. For the financial betterment of the people micro-credit programme were of use. Another successful attempt was by providing scripts to adivasi languages of Gujarat and bringing them in print in the Dhol magazine, Bhasha has contributed to a phenomenal increase in the number of speakers of the Bhili language. During the 1991-2001 decade, 31
the Census shows a 71.9 percent increase in Bhili speakers. This is for the first time since Independence that any tribal language has shown such a phenomenal increase in the number of its speakers. Bhasha is the only who worked for the denotified tribes’ rights and dignity. As a result of Bhasha’s work, a law was passed for their protection. The Budhan theatre group initiated by Bhasha established through the DNTs hard work give them the dignity of born actors wiping away the misconceptions of them being born criminals. They received an identity, career, freedom, dignity all was the result of the Bhasha’s involvement in their issues. The major reason for Bhasha’s achievements is the dedication of each and every person who took part in its journey. Human resource is the back bone of the organization. The staffs as well as the tribal people works together for a good occurrence. Through its works, Bhasha tried to bring equilibrium in the society by bringing all the communities to the same level, filling the gap of racial distinctions. Even the same applies to the non-scheduled adivasi languages, which have been brought up even to the printing media; various studies and documentation done to highlight its relevance to the world.
32