vadodara the national council for promotion of sindhi language has set up 110 classrooms across the country to promote the use of sindhi language and also extended 70 per cent funding for any activity carried out to promote the communitys language and culturea weeklong drama workshop organised by vadodarabased ngo haripushp jethmalani foundation is one such governmentfunded project which has attracted 51 participants from across the countrywe have participants from ahmedabad ulhasnagar ajmer jodhpur bhuj adipurgandhidham bhopal and vadodara who will be trained in sindhi theatre and ancient artforms like bhagat madan jumbani from mumbai and jetho lalwani of ncpsl will teach them nuances of stage art from storywriting to enacting the play says murali gojwani assistant director of the workshopstressing the need for such workshops the foundation says the sindhi language is facing the same challenge which most regional languages are facing today sindhi schools are fast giving way to elite english schools we now have only two sindhi primary schools in the city which a decade ago boasted of a dozen if less than a thousand children attend sindhi medium schools today at least 20000 are studying in english and gujarati medium schools it has become a challenge to instil a sense of belonging among our children towards our language and culture says harish jethmalani chairman of the foundationthe workshop will draw to a close at gandhinagar gruh on november 8 with a public performance where narratives on guru nanak shlokas predominantly based on devotion and lok katha on heerranjha and sonimahiwal among other interesting legends will be enacted says pradeep lekhrajani one of the organiserssays tarana bhatia a class vii student from kutch this workshop will help me learn my language and know about our culture throughout the programme it is compulsory to speak in sindhi we seem to have already developed fluencybhatia and her mother are attending the camp as they believe it is the only way to keep themselves fastened to their roots for 27yearold bharti nathwani from ajmer another participant at the workshop it has been a refreshing experience i have taken up ma in sindhi as i value my language and culture these workshops give us an insight into our language and art says nathwani who has also mastered devanagari and arabic languages