Bhubaneswar: President Droupadi Murmu on Monday conferred the Padma Shri on Odisha-based linguist and educationist Dr. Mahendra Kumar Mishra for his contributions to literature and education at a Civil Investiture Ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
Dr. Mishra, a noted linguist, folklorist, and educationist, has spent over four decades working on the preservation of endangered tribal languages and integrating indigenous knowledge systems into modern education frameworks. He is widely recognised for his efforts in documenting and revitalising tribal oral traditions and promoting multilingual education in India.
Born on April 1, 1952, in Kalahandi district, Dr. Mishra completed his higher studies at Sambalpur University and earned his PhD in 1987. He began his career in the Directorate of Elementary Education, Government of Odisha, as Assistant Director and later served as State Coordinator for Education of Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes, focusing on Tribal Multilingual Education (MLE).
A key figure in the development of MLE in India, Dr. Mishra played a leading role in introducing education in 21 tribal languages in Odisha between 1996 and 2012. He later expanded similar initiatives to states including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Assam through the Language and Learning Foundation, New Delhi. His teacher training programme Rupantar has been instrumental in enabling primary education in mother tongues and strengthening community-based learning systems.
His work aligns with UNESCO guidelines, NCERT frameworks, and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, particularly in improving literacy outcomes and reducing dropout rates among tribal children through culturally contextual education.
Dr. Mishra has also made significant contributions to the documentation of tribal oral literature. His major works include Oral Epics of Kalahandi (2007), Saora Tales and Songs (2005), Paharia Oral Tradition (2021), and Ramkatha in Oral Tradition of Odisha (2025). He has also translated Finland’s epic Kalevala into Odia, strengthening cross-cultural literary exchange.
His research and documentation efforts cover tribal communities such as Gond, Santali, Kondh, Paharia, Saora, and Banjara, ensuring that their oral histories, myths, and cultural narratives are preserved and integrated into academic discourse and educational curricula.
Dr. Mishra is associated with several national cultural and academic bodies, including the Language Development Board, the Centre for Tribal Oral Literature, and committees under the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, where he has contributed to the translation of the Constitution of India into scheduled languages.
On the international stage, he has advised Nepal’s multilingual education policy and delivered lectures at institutions including China’s CASS, Hanyang University in South Korea, Mahidol University in Thailand, and the Russian Academy of Sciences. He has also collaborated with UNESCO in Bangladesh on cultural and educational initiatives.
Over the years, Dr. Mishra has received several prestigious honours, including UNESCO’s International Mother Language Award (2023), the Veer Shankar Shah Raghunath Shah Award (2009), the Kalevala Award (2002) from Finland, and the Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award (1999).
