Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation (DLPI) is a directorate of the Government of Manipur in charge of the

language planning In sociolinguistics, language planning (also known as language engineering) is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure or acquisition of languages or language varieties within a speech community.Kaplan B., Robert, and Rich ...

and the implementation of language policy. The first anniversary of the Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation coincided with 18th Manipuri Language Day, the annual commemorative celebration of the

Meitei language Meitei (; ) also known as Manipuri ), is a Tibeto-Burman language of northeast India. It is the official language and the lingua franca of Manipur and an additional official language in four districts of Assam. It is one of the scheduled ...

's inclusion in the Eighth Schedule to the Indian Constitution. The directorate has become a key organiser of the annual event.

Language planning and implementation works

During November 2013, in collaboration with the '' Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), MHRD,

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...

'', the Department of Language Planning and Implementation organised a five-day training programme on

Natural Language Processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

(NLP) ''in relation to

'' in Lamphelpat. The event took up the initiatives for the provision of the very essential boost for

and for ''"building of co-opera"'' in the ''Linguistic Data Consortium of Indian Languages'' (LDCIL). Major significant tasks discussed and highlighted during the event were

machine translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...

for

documents;

Optical Character Recognition Optical character recognition or optical character reader (OCR) is the electronics, electronic or machine, mechanical conversion of images of typed, handwritten or printed text into machine-encoded text, whether from a scanned document, a photo ...

(OCR) for Meitei language

spell checker In software, a spell checker (or spelling checker or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic ...

, transcription (and

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

) of

Bengali script The Bengali script or Bangla alphabet (, Romanization of Bengali, romanized: ''Bāṅlā bôrṇômālā'') is the standard writing system used to write the Bengali language, and has historically been used to write Sanskrit within Bengal. ...

into

Meitei script The Meitei script (), also known as the Kanglei script () or the Kok Sam Lai script (), after its first three letters is an abugida in the Brahmic scripts family used to write the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur, Assam an ...

() and vice versa. The event's main objective was to set up "building of co-opera" containing millions of

words, phrases, word meanings, words' spelling checker in computers. Experts and scholars of socio-linguistic groups working on Meitei literature, including the ''

Manipuri Sahitya Parishad The Manipuri Sahitya Parishad () is a literary council dedicated to the active promotion and the development of literary works in the Meitei language in India. in national as well as international levels. It has its branches in the Manupur citi ...

(MSP), Culture Forum Manipur, KALAM, MEELAL'', etc. also participated in the event. The training program event was the ''first step'' in forwarding the development of

by the Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation. During May 2014, the Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation organised a 10-day workshop with the purpose of developing Meitei-language terminology to replace English in the areas of Physics, Economics and Geography. Experts, including professors of various departments of different universities, took part. During September 2014, the Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation organised another 10-day workshop., with the aim of producing translations of books on various subjects for secondary school students. During March 2016, the DLPI held a

symposium In Ancient Greece, the symposium (, ''sympósion'', from συμπίνειν, ''sympínein'', 'to drink together') was the part of a banquet that took place after the meal, when drinking for pleasure was accompanied by music, dancing, recitals, o ...

on the theme of ''Multiculturalism and Aspects of Translation''. The symposium had two sessions. In one session, various resource persons presented papers on different topics for the promotion of

. In another session, resource persons presented research papers to sharply increase the level of the translation works to impart the knowledge and understanding of

to people living outside the state of

Manipur Manipur () is a state in northeastern India with Imphal as its capital. It borders the Indian states of Assam to the west, Mizoram to the south, and Nagaland to the north and shares the international border with Myanmar, specifically t ...

. During June 2017, the Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation organised a 10-day Meetei Mayek orientation programme for college teachers who teach

as a subject. The venue for the event was at the DM College of Arts,

Imphal Imphal (; , ) is the capital city of the Indian state of Manipur. The metropolitan centre of the city contains the ruins of Kangla Palace (officially known as Kangla Fort), the royal seat of the former Kingdom of Manipur, surrounded by a ...

. In the event, Thokchom Radheshyam Singh, the then ''Education, Labour & Employment Minister'', launched

textbooks (in

Meitei Mayek The Meitei script (), also known as the Kanglei script () or the Kok Sam Lai script (), after its first three letters is an abugida in the Brahmic scripts family used to write the Meitei language, the official language of Manipur, Assam an ...

) for the academic degree in

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also spelled as e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in electronic form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Al ...

formats. During April 2018, the Directorate of Language Planning & Implementation organised a three-day conference on the topic ''"Classical Language Status in respect of Manipuri Language"'' at the conference hall of Manipur State Guest House, Sanjenthong,

Langpoklakpam Jayantakumar Singh Langpoklakpam Jayantakumar Singh (Meitei language, Meitei pronunciation: /lāng-pōk-lāk-pam ja-yant-kū-mār sīng/) is an Indian politician. He was elected to the Manipur Legislative Assembly from Keishamthong (Vidhan Sabha constituency), Ke ...

, the then Minister of Art & Culture Department of the Government of Manipur, as a Chief Guest of the event, assured that he will take a leading role in the efforts of attaining classical language status for

for the sake of future generations. Thokchom Radheshyam Singh, the then minister of the Education Department of the Government of Manipur, as a President of the event, while calling upon the people to involve in the movement for inclusion of

in the classical language list.

Issues and Demands

November 2020

During November 2020, in response to the then education minister's statement of introducing

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

as a subject in selected schools and colleges of

, there were strong criticism of the minister's plan from the sides of various social organizations. A spearheading social organization, "MEELAL" (Meetei Erol Eyek Loinasillol Apunba Lup) demanded the Government of Manipur that there should be state language departments other than Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation (DLPI) and the concerned authorities should first work on the development and the promotion of

's indigenous languages and Meetei Mayek writing system before promoting other languages.

January 2022

During January 2022, in a meeting with the Wakhallon Mannaba Apunba (WAMA), Leishemba Sanajaoba expressed that he was extremely unsatisfied with the negligence of the

Department of Language Planning and Implementation Directorate of Language Planning and Implementation (DLPI) is a directorate of the Government of Manipur in charge of the language planning and the implementation of language policy. The first anniversary of the Directorate of Language Plan ...

in the documentation works for inclusion of

among the classical languages. The WAMA expressed that such negligence of the Language Department will make the efforts of Sanajaoba, of raising his voice in the

Rajya Sabha Rajya Sabha (Council of States) is the upper house of the Parliament of India and functions as the institutional representation of India’s federal units — the states and union territories.https://rajyasabha.nic.in/ It is a key component o ...

, useless. The WAMA demanded the Government of Manipur for the change of the present director of

. According to the WAMA, Chitra, the present director, is unfit to hold the very directorial position because of her neglecting and irresponsible behaviours.

Notes and references

External links

* * * {{Cite web , title=GP Women College students decry over the unavailability of Meitei Mayek text book : 12th sep17 ~ E-Pao! Headlines , url=https://e-pao.net/GP.asp?src=24..120917.sep17 , access-date=2022-08-22 , website=e-pao.net Meitei language Government of Manipur Government of India Academia in India Academic works about linguistics Language education Language law Language policy Language reform Language regulators Language reformers Languages of Manipur Languages of India Linguistics organizations Linguistics projects Linguistic research Linguistic research in India Linguistic research institutes in India Linguistics works Official languages Research and development in India Research in India Research institutes in India Sociolinguistics works Standard languages Works about language