During the Chaithi festival, the Pengo people refrain from work and spend the days in feasting, dancing, and singing through the night and expeditions into the forest together. Strangers are forbidden in the villages during these days and if an outsider is found infringing upon the borders, the community imposes a fine on the intruder.
Population in the Project Area: 1300
The People
India
Pengo is a tribal group that lives mainly in the Nabarangpur district of Orissa. They are not vegetarians who eat rice and barley. They are monogamous. They have many clans. Women help, except in politics and religion. Pengo people mainly follow the Parja religion. The Parja religion is a mixture of Hinduism and tribal religion. They have a council to look after them. Pengo community people mostly depend upon farming and manual labor. In nonagricultural season, they go into surrounding forests and collect things that can be eaten or sold for money. Most people have a very limited income, often just sustaining life. They cultivate a number of cereals, and individuals also have small vegetable gardens. The farmers do not grow enough to sustain their families for an entire year. Farmers are often forced to leave the dry, barren farmlands to find wage-paying jobs, mostly manual laboring jobs such as working on the construction of roads. Others raise cattle to trade and sell.
The literacy rate of the community is very low. Because of the socio-economic situation, people don’t have enough consciousness of the importance of education.
The Project
Mother-Tongue literacy.
Pengo is a South-Central Dravidian language. They only have the portions of Scriptures in their language. With rapid modernization, the Pengo language faces serious challenges. There are only a few speakers left. But, the Pengo people showed a positive attitude toward preserving their language and heritage. With the help of mother tongue speakers and assistance from the linguists, we prepared the materials for literacy training. The materials were created based on a pre-designed layout and methodology. They include a pre-reader, books that teach the alphabet in a systematic manner, an accompanying storybook, a basic mathematics book, teacher’s guides, a spelling guide, and an alphabet chart. These were introduced at the literacy workshops. More and more people started being attracted to the training program which is a great sign of successful progress.
Progress
As of March 2023
The literacy workshops made a great impact on the lives of the Pengo people. They have started realising the importance of education in improving their life situations. Gaining basic knowledge in their own mother tongue helped them to position themselves on the correct path of learning.
The literacy program has created engaging materials and tested them. Now, the community needs to learn how to use the materials themselves. This program will help people who don’t have access to education to become literate in their own language. This will improve their cognitive abilities, social skills, and economic opportunities. The literacy committee will be trained to recruit and teach mother tongue teachers and to monitor and report on the program. Experts believe that learning in one’s mother tongue is valuable and can lead to transformation and a sense of worth.