Country's first sign language training centre in capital

Updated on: Thursday, October 06, 2011

The country's first sign language training and research centre devoted to the hearing impaired was inaugurated by Kapil Sibal at the IGNOU campus.

The Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) has been established with the support of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. "The ISLRTC has a great responsibility to promote continuous research and scholarship for the evolution of deaf language by building bodies of language and literature," Sibal said.

Hailing establishment of the centre, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Mukul Wasnik hoped the centre will address the huge requirement of sign language trainers and interpreters in the country.

He said 9000 interpreters alone are required in the country which roughly has about 12.62 lakh hearing impaired. The centre will offer full time teaching combined with distance learning for short term and full-fledged programmes.

Wasnik also suggested developing sign language clubs on the lines of the European Sign Language Centres. A Centre for Sindhi Language and Culture (CSLC) was also inaugurated on the occasion by Sibal on the IGNOU campus for promoting the language.

"Among the modern Indian languages, Sindhi is the only language which is stateless," he said, adding the establishment of the centre is part of the UPA Government's agenda for inclusion and inclusive growth.

The present centre will begin its session from January 2012 and offer eight levels of study starting from foundation course to PhD in Sindhi, he said.

Country's first sign language training centre in capital

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