The National Translation Mission is opening up new avenues for translators of regional Indian languages:-
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In a globalised world linguistic barriers are fast disappearing, but in India we have yet to break them. The National Translation Mission (NTM), a translation exercise launched by the Government of India recently, is poised to bridge the divide across regions. “NTM is an initiative to make knowledge-based texts accessible in all Indian languages listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution through translation,” says Uday Narayan Singh, director of the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore, and member of the governing body of the NTM. “We need thousands of experts to handle this colossal effort,” he adds.

Not just the NTM but other government and private agencies too are focusing on translating the wealth of regional Indian literature available into other languages. At present, the Sahitya Akademi (SA) publishes one translated work every 22 hours. “The reservation of readers about translated work is diminishing and a good market is being created,” says Ramkumar Mukhopadhyay, regional secretary (Calcutta), SA. Some encouragement to translation in India comes from the Rs 90 crore earmarked for NTM by the Union human resource development ministry.

The NTM aims at aiding research and teaching by making available textbooks, dictionaries, thesauri, and teaching aids such as maps, charts, diagrams, and economic surveys and educational surveys in all the Indian languages. There are books, technical and academic papers, business proposals, budget documents and so on. Poetry, fiction, essays and legal documents, such as contracts, deeds or marriage certificates, and even scientific documents are also waiting to be translated. There is work in the form of film and television subtitles too.

In 2004, Anukriti.net — conceived by the CIIL, SA and NBT — was launched to act as a quality translation service site for Indian languages. Since then around 2,000 people have registered with it as translators. These are the people who will work on the 440 books (with an average of 250 pages) that the NTM aims to get translated this year. But they are simply not enough. The NTM plans to get 2,500 books translated into all the languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution during the 11th Plan. For that it will need about 8,000 translators, 2,000 evaluators and around the same number of copy editors. Some of these people will also have the option to work from home. There is enough work available with the NTM to sustain these translators full time.

Professional translation requires a combination of skills; fluency in the language is just one of them. Others include knowledge of the culture and institutions of the country or state where the language is spoken. It is a misconception that it simply involves word by word translation of a text. In actual practice, translation involves moving the soul of a text into a different body. “Good translators convert language without changing the meaning or tone,” adds Chakraborty.

Although quite a few courses on translation are being offered across the country, the unanimous opinion is that they do not help much unless you have a flair for creative writing in your native language. But if you do have the flair, and are a good reader, you can get a postgraduate diploma in translation studies from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. The University of Hyderabad and Agra University also offer diplomas in translation while Annamalai University offers a diploma as well as a masters, MPhil and PhD in the subject. The comparative literature departments of some universities, such as Jadavpur University, Calcutta, also offer courses in translation studies.

The best way to get work is to register with Anukriti as the NTM has the most work available. If it is a job you are looking for, opportunities can be found in government and non-government agencies, banks, public sector undertakings, universities, training centres and multinational companies. There is work in Indian and foreign publishing houses, and in the computer, pharmaceutical, medical and engineering industries.

How much you make depends on the languages you know, your field of specialisation (for example, law, engineering, medicine or finance pays more) as well as the urgency and level of difficulty of the text. Though Indian counterparts cannot match the rates paid by foreign concerns, the picture is not that glum. While SA pays Rs 250 per 1,000 words, Katha Bharati pays Rs 300. The National Book Trust pays Rs 40,000-50,000 per novel. The NTM rates have not been approved as yet but Singh says they will be higher than these rates. Add to this is the income from royalties. “We divide royalty equally between our authors and translators,” says Moyna Mazumdar, editor, Katha Books.

So if you have a flair for languages, learn one in which there is a dearth of translators (such as Bodo, Santhali and Maithili) and make your pen pay its way

Sources: The Telegraph (Kolkata, India)