​Opposing the Government’s decision to integrate the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) with the Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH) in Mumbai, the hearing impaired community on Tuesday held a demonstration in Delhi, urging the revocation of the order with immediate effect.

Protesting under the banner of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), the community has also written to the Prime Minister demanding complete autonomy for ISLRTC as envisaged in the 11th Plan.

“We, the 18 million deaf citizens of the country strongly protest this decision to merge the much needed independent centre with an organisation that has poor insight into the problems of the deaf community or their culture. We have been forced to come out on the streets to demand an end to this injustice being meted out to the deaf community,” said A.S Narayanan, Secretary, NAD, ​in his address​ to the protesters.

Narayanan said there was “a serious shortage “of sign language interpreters in the country and the recent government order letter will “hinder” ​the Centre's independent functioning. ​

In a release, NAD also demanded that a committee of sign language experts from India and abroad be constituted to review the original draft proposed in 2011, adding that involvement of deaf experts and academics, as well as representatives from the National Associations of the Deaf, be involved in all the processes of the establishment.

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