In a first, deaf and mute get due attention at I-Day event

Ravneet Singh

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Patiala, August 17

For the first time, Arshnoor was able to understand the Chief Minister’s Independence Day address without the help of others as sign language expert Ravinder Kaur translated the CM’s speech word-to-word as he spoke from the podium. The community of over 3 lakh deaf and mute in Punjab welcomed the move.

“This is a big step towards accessibility for us. For years, we have been pushed behind due to inaccessibility,” said Jagdip Singh, president of the Patiala association of the deaf.

He said there were over 3 lakh deaf and mute individuals in the state. “But they have to depend on others, including their family members, to understand what is being conveyed in spoken words. The community has been left behind. This Independence Day our students presented the National Anthem in sign language. A translator interpreted the CM’s address in sign language. With such initiatives, we feel part of the larger community,” he said.

Singh, for his work towards the community, is now a member of the state advisory board of the Department of Social Security and Women and Child Development. He is working on forming an association of the deaf across the state.

During the Independence Day event, the CM met him and other individuals and released balloons in the air with students from the Patiala school of the deaf and Vani School.

Nitesh Sharma, Jagdip Singh’s personal interpreter, said according to the national association for the deaf, there were over 18 million people with hearing and speech impairment in the country. He said, “Civil society should provide accessibility to the disabled in all forms of public life, especially in education. They can communicate with each other. But there is a lack of proper teaching for them at schools.”