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| Deaf and Dumb Association holds meeting | | |
Early Times Report
Jammu, Dec 4: The Association of the Deaf and Aphasic Jammu Affiliated Association of Deaf and Dumb Affiliated National Association of the Deaf, New Delhi aims to be a body that is truly representative of all deaf people across India. This includes deaf people in every state in India. Currently in India there is not a strong deaf movement, so N.A.D. aims to rally deaf people in order to demand their rights from the Government and policy makers. The rights of the deaf in India have been trampled upon without any organisation raising its voice and providing any relief to the deaf community in any sustainable tangible way and what little has been done is only scratching the surface of the urban deaf population. The signing deaf community has no real status within society.
OUR AIMS
To promote the rights and quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in India To foster a united front of deaf people across the different states of India To promote equal rights at all levels and in all fields of life. To encourage the interaction of deaf people through meetings, at both national and regional levels, sports meetings and political rallies. Lobbying Government bodies and policy makers to ensure that the rights of deaf people are taken into account. Creating public awareness and educating others on the current issues and problems concerning deaf people.
To ensure the empowerment of deaf people so that they are economically self-sufficient educationally sound, and have their rightful place in society. The RPWD ACT 2016 has brought hope to the deaf community as for the first time there is a provision of accessibility being mandated in the Act in all public and private services across the board from Health care, Access to Justice, Employment, Access to govt schemes, Education and so on.
The unfortunate part is that this remains a paper tiger and as such has not been achieved even in a significant part. By and large Govt agencies and service providers such as hospitals and colleges are as yet unaware of the provisions in the Act let alone trying to find ways and means to provide access. The onus is now upon the NAD to again lobby for the implementation of the provisions of the very ACT that the entire disabled community lobbied for after the ratification of the UNCRPD. There can be no access without interpreters for the deaf who are our link to the world. Interpreters level the playing field and provide deaf persons access to all that the world has to offer. The need for interpreter training programs in the country is dire Consider the following:
1. There are upwards of 9 million deaf people using Indian Sign Language.
2. There are a total of 6 centres providing training to Indian Sign Language Interpreters and the courses are undersubscribed.
3. There is no post of interpreter in the Department of Personnel and Training. 4. There is no active publicity campaign to provide information to the public of such a profession and career option in the govt media. 5. The applications to RCI for permission to start courses for ISL Interpreters are being refused even to Institutions who are already conducting RCI approved courses. 6. The LIGC which has set up Equal Opportunity Cells in universities across the country has played no proactive role in encouraging universities to set up Interpreter training diploma courses. While this may be a very viable option for a career for many of the degree holders passing out from the university who could in their own university be providers of access to deaf students who apply for higher education. 7. The Prime Minister has shown support for Sign Language repeatedly as being viable as a language to be taught to children in hearing schools 8. However as of today ISL is yet to be taught in deaf schools and the bulk of teacher training programs do not provide Indian sign language training to B.Ed Special Education (H.I) students.
The teachers themselves are woefully inadequately equipped to communicate to the deaf children they are supposed to teach.
9. Schools for the deaf do not teach Indian sign language to the deaf children 10. Deaf children are by and large language deprived. The ones who are enrolled in schools learn a pidgin form of self-created signs that are unique to the school they come from and often have no relation to ISL as it is known. 11. Language deprivation makes deaf children/women especially vulnerable to heinous sexual crimes, without the ability to communicate effectively.
Given the set of circumstances in our country, the NAD calls for a review of action taken by the various Govt departments with regard to the crucial element of access for the deaf. The provision of access is now mandated and is our right to have. The respective Govt departments must take appropriate action to bridge the gap on a war footing.
We call upon State commissioners for PWD in all states to take decisive suo moto action and bring about a change in the status quo that nobody is willing to admit. |
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