The second edition of the Indian Sign Language Dictionary was released which listed 6,000 words in Hindi and English along with their corresponding graphic representation. The first edition was launched last year and this step is to bridge the communication gap with the hearing impaired population in the country. Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot applauded the efforts of the ISLRTC in bringing out such a useful dictionary for hearing and speech impaired people.
The aim of the dictionary is to help spread the use of Indian Sign Language which will result in better education and employment opportunities for hearing and speech impaired persons. The sign language dictionary is intended to serve as a resource for ISL teachers and learners, teachers of the hearing impaired, interpreters, parents of hearing impaired children, researchers etc. Hearing impaired persons will benefit from this dictionary since they can look up information about a particular sign and its English or Hindi equivalents.
India is an extremely diverse country and according to the 2001 Census, there are 50, 71,007 deaf people and 19, 98,535 with speech disability in India. India has 122 major languages and 1599 other languages. So, the sign languages also vary from region to region making communication quite difficult. ISLRTC, New Delhi realized the gravity of the situation and issues being faced by a large number of deaf people in common communication. With the launch of the first Indian Sign Language Dictionary, around 50 lakh hearing impaired people and 20 lakh speech-impaired people in the country got a uniform sign language to communicate with.
The dictionary has been developed by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD). The Indian Sign Language Research & Training Centre (ISLR&TC) had been working on its dream project of developing the Indian Sign Language Dictionary for last one and a half years before the launch of the first edition.
Image Courtesy: India Today