IGNOU announces Graduate and Postgraduate Programmes for Deaf Students by ISLRTC

“Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) will soon start undergraduate and postgraduate programmes along with B.Ed in a phased manner for deaf students,” announced the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) authorities on the first foundation day of ISLRTC in the Conference Hall, Block no-15, of the University campus.

Prof Gopinath Pradhan, Vice Chancellor, IGNOU, delivered the address and emphasized that, “Our objective is to reach the unreached and with the establishment of ISLRTC, this mandate of the university stands tall. While introducing such programmes, we are aiming to improve the skills of the deaf community in the country and also uplifting a particular section in the society by imparting training to them.” Prof Avadhesh Kumar Singh, Director, ISLRTC remarked that with the establishment of the centre all the ISL users have created their own space in the society and have been accepted all over the world today.

Mr AS Narayanan, General Secretary, National Association of the Deaf, delivered a special lecture in ISL and described the barriers while coming up with such a unique centre in Asia. “We are striving to have ISLRTC branches all over India. We hope that ISL classes will be in each town and village and all schools for the deaf will use them. This will make communication and learning for deaf children easier and will also generates job opportunities for more interpreters who will be professionals. Currently, we need four lakh interpreters while there are merely 200 today. We will have excellent professors and researchers who will do research on ISL. We will know more about our own language,” said Narayanan.

Prof Madan Vasishta, Chief Advisor, ISLRTC, communicated through the sign language his emphatic emotions and said that, “15 years back, when I compared America with India on the grounds of deaf community development, we stood poles apart with no employment opportunities at all for them. Now I see the dream coming true with the establishment of ISLRTC.”

“When the ISLRTC started, it broke the barriers of communication. In the starting when the centre was not established, we had to face a lot of obstacles but with its establishment the students of Bachelor of Arts in Special Sign Language Studies (BASSLS) of IGNOU received a boost in their activities. But to our dismay, this is only happening here, the rest of the country still needs the support,” shared Lucky and Anu, students of BASSLS, while communicating in the sign language to the audience during the foundation day celebration.

The foundation day was celebrated by all the deaf students and staff members of the university.

The students of BASSLS concluded the celebration with cultural programmes and a national anthem in ISL. Dr Hemlata, programme coordinator, BASSLS, distributed the first newsletter of ISLRTC and delivered the vote of thanks. ISLRTC is sponsored by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, located in the headquarters IGNOU.

Its foundation stone was laid by Shri Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Human Resource and Development and Shri Mukul Wasnik, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment last year in the University campus to strengthen the identity of Indian Sign Language (ISL) as a bona fide language and promote its use in educational and social setting.

Source: Official website of IGNOU