Tribal UPSC aspirants hailing from weaker economic backgrounds can now avail free coaching in Santhali language curriculum and brighten their chances of good marks in the main exam.

Dr Ramdayal Munda Tribal Welfare Research Institute (commonly known as Tribal Research Institute) functioning under the welfare department, the Jharkhand government will start the four-month non-residential course on December 27.

“This is aimed at helping poor tribal aspirants get good marks in the Santhali language papers in the UPSC main and equivalent examinations. They can email us at tri.directorate@gmail.com with their documents,” said institute director Ranendra Kumar.

Santhali language was added to the eighth schedule of the Constitution in 2003 through the 92nd Constitutional Amendment Act. The Santhali literature in UPSC main exam consists of two papers each of 250 marks (a total of 500 marks) and has to be written in the Santhali language only.

“Till now, 30 students have enrolled for the course. The objective of the programme is to provide success to the students of the Scheduled Tribe category in the competitive examinations of Union Public Service Commission by helping them fetch good marks,” said a statement issued by the state public relations department on Tuesday.

“The speciality of the Santhali language is that the participants from communities like Mundari, Ho, Khadiya, Asuri, Birhori, Birjia, Swasi etc., who speak the languages of the Mundari language family, do not face much difficulty in preparing because their mother tongue is similar to Santhali,” the statement added.

“But, separate additional classes will be conducted for the participants of non-Mundari language candidates, so that they can easily learn Santhali language and can get involved in the preparation of its curriculum as soon as possible,” the statement adds.

For the ‘Santhali Language Coaching’ being conducted in the institute, the curriculum will be prepared by the lecturers like assistant professor of the Santhali language department at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University, Dumani Mai Murmu, Francis C. Murmu and Santosh Murmu.

“The curriculum of this training has been specially prepared by the UPSC and equivalent examinations. In which there are books of prose, poetry, novels, stories, drama and biography,” said an official at TRI.