MoMA Workshop Promotes AI-Based Bhasha Daan to Preserve India’s Languages

The workshop convened experts, institutional partners, technologists, and community representatives to discuss strategies for protecting vulnerable languages in an increasingly digital world.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) organized an insightful and forward-looking workshop on Bhasha Daan, a citizen-driven initiative under BHASHINI, India's National Language Technology Mission. The event highlighted the urgent need to safeguard India's vast linguistic heritage, especially endangered and classical languages, through digital technologies and community participation.

Preserving Classical and Endangered Languages Through AI

The workshop convened experts, institutional partners, technologists, and community representatives to discuss strategies for protecting vulnerable languages in an increasingly digital world. Special emphasis was placed on Pali, Prakrit, Avesta Pahlavi, and the Gurmukhi script, all of which require enhanced linguistic datasets and stronger documentation efforts.

Participants explored the need for building high-quality monolingual corpora, developing language resources, and encouraging active community-led contributions to support the creation of robust AI language models for low-resource languages.

Leadership in AI-Driven Cultural Preservation

Dr. Chandra Shekhar Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of Minority Affairs, has been a strong advocate for integrating AI into governance and cultural preservation initiatives. Under his leadership, the Ministry has intensified efforts to document classical and endangered languages using AI tools.

He has also encouraged officials to build AI awareness and technical proficiency, promoting capacity-building workshops to strengthen digital governance, accelerate innovation, and ensure evidence-based policymaking.

BHASHINI: A National Mission to Break Language Barriers

BHASHINI, an AI-powered initiative of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), aims to democratize access to digital services by enabling seamless communication across India's languages. The mission offers:

• Real-time text and speech translation

• Open-source datasets, models, and APIs

• Tools for linguistic digitization and inclusive access

The platform empowers citizens, institutions, and developers to contribute language data, enabling technology ecosystems that reflect India's linguistic diversity.

Bhasha Daan Ecosystem Showcased

Workshop participants were introduced to the full Bhasha Daan ecosystem, including its:

• Importance for low-resource languages

• Roles of contributors and institutions

• End-to-end workflow: data ingestion → validation → golden dataset creation

Detailed sessions illustrated how curated datasets help build accurate AI models for speech recognition, text processing, machine translation, and digital accessibility.

Live Demonstrations Engage Participants

Interactive demonstrations of Bolo India, Suno India, Likho India, and Dekho India on the BHASHINI platform showed how citizens can contribute:

• Speech recordings

• Text samples

• Image-based linguistic inputs

The workshop also covered technical preparedness, resource planning, dataset standards, and best practices to ensure impactful and efficient execution of language digitization initiatives.

Community Participation Key to Language Survival

Officials emphasised that empowering local communities is the most sustainable way to preserve India's linguistic heritage. Community-driven data contributions help ensure that diverse languages—especially those at risk of disappearance—remain relevant and accessible for future generations.

Strengthening India's Digital Linguistic Future

The workshop reaffirmed MoMA's commitment to using technology for cultural preservation, inclusive development, and linguistic diversity. By supporting BHASHINI and Bhasha Daan, the Ministry aims to ensure that every language, every script, and every voice finds representation in India's digital future.