Tamil Nadu: society

In what is a thumbs up for positive empowerment, sign language is going to be soon included on the list of the official languages of India. This initiative of the Indian government has arrived as a shot in the arm for the community of deaf and dumb and could not have come a day too soon.
 
The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has initiated a pilot study to develop the grammar and structure of sign language. Three young hearing-impaired persons with diplomas in sign language from Coimbatore, associated with researchers from Mysore-based Central Institute of Indian languages, (CIIL) are currently developing a lexicon for the sign language. During the course of the study, the researchers interacted with more than 250 other hearing-impaired.

The workers include Sakthivel, Kumaresan and Lakshmi who belong to the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya in Coimbatore and cannot hear. In addition, a national-level study will be conducted by the ministry to integrate common signs of all states in the official language. The Faculty of Disability Management and Special Education (FDMSE) of the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University has developed a dictionary of Indian sign language with 1,600 words. A recently organised seminar “Sensitization programme on the need for corpus creation in Indian sign language” saw more than 90 participants with hearing difficulties.

The faculty is involved in many activities related to the sign language since 2005. The government has tasked the CIIL to conduct a nationwide research on corpus creation.  In turn the CIIL has requested the FDMSE to conduct a pilot study in the Coimbatore region. “A language grows in various dimensions and gets a permanent shape when it is recognised by the government. Importantly, people will get a common sign language so that the confusions which arise from regional variations will be solved. We are planning to produce video shows and will finish our research work and submit it soon,” says Lakshmi, assistant professor of the Hearing and Impairment Department. In India, over seven million people are categorised as deaf. The researchers have met and observed closely the deaf in schools, marriage halls and other public places to know how the signs are communicated among a larger audience.

“Sign language would get more respect when recognised by the government. It would help not just the dumb and deaf but everyone. People of different states and varying cultures can overcome the language barrier when they learn the Sign language,” says Latha Rajendran, principal of Chennai-based Dr MGR School For The Speech and Hearing, welcoming the initiative. Good first step.