On 16th February 2026, the President of India Droupadi Murmu, inaugurated the Centenary Celebrations of the Ol Chiki script in New Delhi, Delhi, organized by the Ministry of Culture to mark 100 years of the script, highlighting it as a powerful symbol of Santal identity and a vital tool for preserving the Santhali language worldwide.
- During the event, President Droupadi Murmu released a commemorative coin and a special postage stamp and felicitated 10 achievers from the Santal community for their contributions to promoting the script.
About Ol Chiki :
Origin: Before Ol Chiki, Santhali was written in Roman, Devanagari, Odia, Bengali and other local scripts in Nepal, Bhutan and Mauritius, which failed to capture its original phonetics.
Inventor: The script was devised in 1925 by Pandit Raghunath Murmu of Rairangpur, Mayurbhanj (Odisha) to create a phonetic, culturally rooted writing system with 30 letters.
Recognition: Santhali, an Austroasiatic language spoken across Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal (WB), Assam, Bihar and beyond, was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India in 2003 with Ol Chiki as its official script.
Initiatives: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examination is now conducted in the Ol Chiki script, and the Constitution of India was translated into the Santali language in December 2025.
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