Community response: India’s COVID-19 Crisis
Translators improve lives by translating lifesaving information for people who speak marginalized languages. Those who volunteer as part of the Translators without Borders (TWB) community have a range of experiences and skills. They share our vision of a world where knowledge knows no language barriers. We are grateful for all our translators, and we love sharing their stories.
Health, gender, equity, emergency
At each stage of the COVID-19 crisis, our community responded with vital translations, voiceovers, and captions in the languages people understand. Over 190 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, and 32,737,939 of these are in India at the time of publication. There, the world watched India battle an oxygen shortage in tandem with a surge of infections. We translated vital information to help keep people safe from the virus. Now, a vaccination drive is underway to inoculate the population. But experts are concerned about a gender gap, as “government data shows 6% fewer women are getting vaccinated.” This is especially problematic in rural India where there is less internet access and more hesitation or fear around the vaccine, especially among women.
“I feel translation makes a huge difference since even in India, many people from remote areas could not initially access the COVID health and vaccination resources made available by the government, either because of not having the means or not being able to use the English platform due to a language barrier.”
Chinmay Rastogi, TWB Hindi Language Associate
This is where our language community jumps into action. Collectively, we’re working towards a goal of more equitable access to information, irrespective of our language. We interviewed Chinmay Rastogi, our Hindi Language Associate, as well as Ashutosh Mitra and Poonam Tomar, members of our dedicated Hindi language community. They all donate their time and skills to support our mission. For the people of India, this means providing accurate, timely information about the pandemic as it evolves. It also means ensuring people can ask the questions that matter to them and get answers in their language.
Ashutosh, Hindi translator
- Inspired by Hindu philosophy
- Keeps his TWB T-shirt proudly in his wardrobe
- 700,000 words donated
Chinmay, Hindi language associate
- Helps lead the Hindi language community
- Joined in the midst of the pandemic
- 72,000 words donated
Poonam, Hindi translator
- Lives in Singapore
- Passionate about learning new things
- 17,000 words donated
Novel virus, new words.
Chinmay joined TWB during the chaos of the pandemic. He was quickly thrown into COVID-19 training and education projects to ensure that healthcare workers in the community can properly communicate with people about the virus. “Social distancing,” “quarantine,” “isolation,” and countless other new terms have been coined in English and other languages to describe how we’ve dealt with the virus. These terms, used by the World Health Organization, for example, have to be taken on board by people all over the world, no matter what language they speak. There was no English to Hindi dictionary for these new terms and new ways of using them. So Chinmay and his fellow translators have joined the effort to translate numerous resources to inform and support people, in their languages. It’s the job of our linguists and Language Associates to work out the best way to translate unfamiliar terms and make resources accessible to all our language communities in new and strange circumstances. One such resource is the Hindi Style Guide which Chinmay recently helped create for TWB translators. It illustrates the basic principles for translating TWB projects into Hindi. Chinmay said “it’s challenging but really exciting to work towards this end since it could really have a positive impact on someone’s life. Even as digitization continues to propel itself into lives all over the world, many resources are not “accessible” despite being “available” because of a language barrier. The idea of being able to bridge this gap appeals to me.”
“It has been interesting to follow how new words and terms are absorbed into a language.”
Chinmay, TWB Hindi Language Associate.
Many languages, one cause
TWB linguists are motivated to come together in support of their communities. Poonam says, “The COVID situation has taught me how vital it is to have a translated version of important guidelines in your own native language. Being a linguist, I wanted to give back to the community to spread awareness in such critical times.”
“Through TWB, I am trying to help bridge the gap for all native speakers of Hindi who are unable to read and understand foreign languages.”
Poonam, Hindi translator for TWB
For Ashutosh, the philosophy of Hinduism is what motivates him. He explains: “वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम {vasudhaiv kuTumbakam} means ‘Vasudha’ (earth) + eva (one and only) + Kutumbakam (family). This statement enjoins humans to exhibit the highest sense of affinity and leave all the differences such as caste, color, ethnicity, nationality, and religion aside. And when you follow this philosophy you share what you have within your family, irrespective of age and relation. And this is what I do when I volunteer for TWB. And this is what keeps motivating me.”
Ashutosh is inspired by the “Karma” philosophy of Bhagavad Gita, which speaks about volunteering:
कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
।2.47।।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि।
He translates this to English as – “Let your claim lie on action alone and never on the fruits; you should never be a cause for the fruits of action; let not your attachment be to inaction.”
Learning together
Poonam says she generally spends her evenings and weekends volunteering for TWB. She is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the COVID-19 Digital Classroom. This is a library of resources for community-based health workers made multilingual in collaboration with TWB’s community of linguists. By making learning available to the Hindi-speaking community, everyone involved has played a part in actively slowing the spread of COVID-19 and saving lives.
The opportunity for mutual understanding and learning through translation is a rewarding experience for all of our volunteers. Chinmay appreciates that “With TWB, the huge breadth of projects means you never have to limit yourself. It’s also fascinating to see how technology is being used here to actually make our world a better place by creating tools and services in languages that people are familiar with.”
Many of the TWB community describe it as family. We’re proud to offer opportunities to connect and give back together, and would like to extend our invitation to join us! We’re growing our Hindi-speaking community so we can respond to more humanitarian needs.
Commencing September 27, 2021, we’ll be marking Hindi Language Week – it’s a chance to celebrate our Hindi-speaking community with online webinars, translation contests, and more.
Join the effort, spread the word to Hindi speakers, and support TWB to share vital information and make people heard in their language.
Written by Danielle Moore, Communications and Engagement Officer for TWB, part of CLEAR Global. Interview responses by Chinmay Rastogi, Volunteer Hindi Language Associate for TWB, Ashutosh Mitra, Translator for TWB, and Poonam Tomar, Translator for TWB.