Kurukh Language

• The West Bengal government has given an official status to Kurukh language in the state which has been listed as an endangered language by the UNESCO.
• The language was given the official status on February 21 on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day.

About Language:

• Kurukh language is a popular tribal language of eastern and central region of the country.
• This Indian tribal language is also known as Kurux.
• This language belongs to the Dravidian language group. Kurukh is mainly spoken by the Oraon 'Kurukh' tribe, which is a tribal (Adivasi) group of Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.
• This tribal group is also found in the northern region of neighbouring country of Bangladesh.
• This language  is also called as Oraon. Kurukh language that belongs to the Dravidian group of languages is further divided into northern Dravidian family of languages
• Kurukh language is basically written in Devanagari script.
• This script is used in writing several prominent languages like Hindi language, Marathi language, Sanskrit language and various other Indo-Aryan languages.
• Kurukh tribal language is chiefly spoken by a huge number of people belonging to the Oraon and Kisan tribal communities.
• However, in spite of the huge number of speakers of this language, it is still considered at a risk for extermination.
• Government of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh has commenced Kurux language in those schools where there is a majority of the Oraon or Kurukhar students.

By: Vishal