Language To Consider Learning

A lady at the university campus canteen was paying her bill when a group of people enter, is there a student’s union meeting, no replied the canteen owner. They come once a week and it is very interesting to watch them debate and discuss. Two weeks back they discussed “What is that the Nation wants to know and how it must be told.” Hey I am a journalist I would like to listen to them?  

You cannot listen to them they aren’t vocal. You can pull up that tall chair and sit next to my cash counter. How will that help, well it’s been over 7 months I have been watching them, I used to join them, practiced on line and gradually learnt their sign language. I can interpret and share their discussions with you.

You see that girl in green on her handbag is a sticker of the Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre. It depicts two palms, the base of sign language, that when viewed in another dimension, resembles a candle with a flame, symbolizing "a hope" for deaf individuals to achieve their dreams with ISLRTC's support. 

The man in white is reminding others today’s agenda of discussing roles and responsibilities promoting fondness of sign language among people. Some statistics and facts will be shared and all are asked to make notes.

The girl in yellow is now sharing data; 1,635 rationalised mother tongues and 234 identifiable mother tongues are languages and dialects spoken by the people of India. 22 languages have official language status by the Indian constitution; hoping someday ISL Indian Sign language gets that status too. 2024 estimates by WHO approximately 63 million people in India with significant auditory impairment. India is 5.3% of global deafness population.  

The lady in blazer is the oldest, says her generation had it very challenging to pursue education and employment. Things are slightly better now as the Indian Sign Language is becoming increasingly recognized within Indian universities and educational institutions. She also mentions about on line news, full-time media channels and a DTH channel, specifically designed for the deaf community. She is now collecting forms of volunteers from team who have offered to interpret like I am doing for you. By the way my wife and children also know sign language and we have a deaf girl as our full time domestic help. 

The girl in pink is now talking about (RPwD) Act 2016 The Rights of Persons with Disabilities mandating appointments in government and public sectors. She proposes, all to connect with HR heads and managerial post professionals influencing them to learn and add sign language to their qualification skills and create easy employment opportunities for the deaf. She is now reading a few names of deaf personalities; Sarah Sunny first lawyer to argue in Supreme court. Jyoti Raja a world class athlete. Priyanka Bose an actress. Shubham Chaudhary is India’s first deaf mute model, there are many more.

As she distributes the list the canteen owner disengages from the group and speaks to the journalist. There are multiple dining restaurants in Mumbai, serving food exclusively by speech & hearing-impaired service staff. The owners learnt the language setting new standards and are inspirations to others removing barriers that prevent deaf people from achieving their dreams.

Knowledge of languages is doorway to wisdom, request you and your kind journalists to use media time and print content to influence all states, to sponsor free sign language training courses. The silent children of God can do everything else except hear; we the normal are often deaf in mind and need to change our mind set.      

The journalist assured to learn the sign language and use her journalism platform increase awareness and spread the fondness of sign language; a dance with words among the masses.