Conversational Speech in Gujarati in the Medical Domain

Statistics

Total Audio Duration: 25 hours of multi-speaker conversational speech (highly audited audio-to-text pairs)

Creation process

The dataset is strictly comprised of natural, spontaneous speech. Speakers were explicitly instructed not to follow a script. They were told to pick a topic they felt comfortable with and think: "How do I talk about this in real life?"

To help them sustain natural dialogue for the required 9 to 10 minutes per session, speakers were given a tip to map out 4 to 5 simple bullet points or practice chatting with their partner once before hitting record. They were told to keep it personal, share their own stories, what they have seen around them, and what they think or feel.

The recordings feature natural pairs of individuals who already have an established real-life relationship. Users were told to record the conversations with someone they know, like a friend, a cousin, or a neighbour. To ensure acoustic and conversational diversity, a user could only record with the same partner for a maximum of 3 sessions, and they had to select an entirely different topic each time.

For every recording, explicit speaker metadata was logged for the conversational partner, including Age, Gender, Phone Number, and the PIN code of where they are originally from.

Setup and Recording Instructions Given to Speakers:

• Speakers were instructed to talk in a quiet place so their voices remained clear. While minor background noise was acceptable, it could not interfere with clarity, and both individuals had to be equally audible using the phone’s standard built-in microphone.

• Speakers were given an IMPORTANT safety instruction: they were strictly forbidden from mentioning their real names, their partner's names, where they work, or where they live. All identifying personal details were intentionally kept out of the conversations.

• Every submission had to strictly adhere to a window of 9 to 10 minutes. Participants were required to complete a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 8 conversation recordings per assigned domain.

Directory structure

The root directory contains pairs of WAV and JSON files, aligned with a prefix:

• T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075.merged.json

• T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075.wav

File structure

The JSON file has contains three parts: “audio”, “metadata” and “transcriptions”:

• audio: The filename and file format information

• metadata: The metadata of the speaker and the topic

• transcriptions: The time aligned transcriptions

Example

{
  "audio": {
    "filename": "T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075.wav",
    "duration_sec": 481.92966,
    "sample_rate_hz": 44100,
    "bit_depth": 16,
    "channels": 1
  },
  "metadata": {
    "speaker2_gender": "male",
    "user_topic": "[\"આશા, એએનએમ અને આંગણવાડી કાર્યકરોની ભૂમિકા\"]",
    "speaker2_pincode": 396040,
    "workerid_gender": "male",
    "val_id": "1218bdcc9b5f4e538d0d21f4ff4d9b07"
  },
  "transcriptions": [
    {
      "utt_id": "T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075_0001",
      "speaker": "SPEAKER1",
      "start_time": 0.88,
      "end_time": 9.08,
      "text": " વિસ્તારના આરોગ્ય કર્મચારીઓ શું કરે છે? અને તેઓ ગામમાં કેટલા અવારનવાર આવે છે. સંદર્ભમાં "
    },
    {
      "utt_id": "T-18044.MT-ee55b0648bbd4e3aa1863de8d4bdcfc0.MTA-fa9fed6ffc92421a80c19488dc9b125d.A-562950054523254.W-130571.K-user_recording.R-87ec30a3fc9f4075_0002",
      "speaker": "SPEAKER2",
      "start_time": 10.02,
      "end_time": 17.78,
      "text": " તેઓ થોડા, થોડા સમયની અંદર આવે છે, તેઓ ગર્ભદિતિઓની નિયમિત, Checkup સલાહ  આપે છે. "
    },
    ….

Example translations:

• હા, અહ અમારા ઘરનો જ એક દાખલો કહું, તો એક ladies હતી, જે અહ ગર્ભાવસ્થા દરમિયાન doctor એ એને બને એટલું પથારી માંથી ઉઠવાની ના પાડેલી.

  • Yes, to give you an example from our own home, there was a lady who, uh, during her pregnancy, was advised by the doctor not to get out of bed as much as possible.

• ત્યાં જઈને એમનું અ દર મહિનાનું Check-up કરવામાં આવે. અ એમને જરૂર પૂરતું અનાજ કે જે પણ જોઈતું હોય તો એ આપવામાં આવે તો એ રીતના ઘણું સારું Government દ્વારા આ એક શરૂ કરવામાં આવ્યું છે.

  • They go there, and, uh, their monthly check-up is done. Uh, they are also provided with the necessary food grains and anything else they may need. In this way, the government has started something very good.

• તો એ સમયે આ આંગણવાડીની જે બહેનો છે. એ દર અઠવાડિયે આવીને free માં ચેકઅપ કરી જતા હતા. એ ઉપરાંત એમને કઈ પણ એવું લાગે કે ભઈ આ વસ્તુ ખાસ સાચવવા જેવી છે, તો એવી સલાહ પણ આપવામાં આવતી હતી.

  • So, at that time, the Anganwadi sisters used to come every week and do the check-up for free. Apart from that, if they felt that, well, something needed special care, they would also advise about it.