COVID-19 Scare: IIT Kharagpur students make WHO guidelines videos in 12 Indian languages

In order to spread awareness about the precautionary measures to be taken to contain coronavirus spread, a group of students at IIT Kharagpur has uploaded videos explaining the WHO guidelines in 12 different languages on social media.  

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur students have come up with an innovative idea to create awareness about the precautionary measures they need to follow to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A students' group at IIT Kharagpur has uploaded videos in 12 Indian languages on social media explaining the guidelines issued by WHO, to help people understand the advisory in the language they are comfortable with.

Vision Prabaho, an environmental activities group on the IIT Kharagpur campus, have uploaded videos in  Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu languages. This has been done with the sole aim to educate people about the necessity of following the said guidelines given by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to remain safe, a member of the group said in a statement.

With advisory issued in regional languages, the chances of misinformation will be reduced and people will become more cautious of keeping themselves and their loved ones safe, said Biswaroop Mondal, a member of the group.

The group had initially uploaded a video on the advisory in Bengali, however, on recommendations of other students of the institute the group had made videos in other regional languages too, Mondal said.

We had started with five different languages video in a day on social media. But within the period of two days, we were able to upload total of 12 videos, he added.

The Ministry of State for Human Resource Development has also lauded their effort through a social media post.

The group is also planning to make videos in Maithili, Santhali, Nagamese, and Kokborok, another member of the group said.

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