Kuhu is one of India's 3 million deaf children
Deafness is the second most common birth defect in India. According to Deaf Child Worldwide, there are 3 million deaf children in the country, but hardly any specialized institutions cater for their needs. And despite the political promises to give every Indian child the right to education, actually only one in 10 deaf children in the country go to school at all.
The luckiest of them will end up at the I Hear Foundation is an early intervention program that starts working with hearing impaired kids and their parents to help diagnose, treat, and then help the children assimilate into a hearing world.
They have 25 students – children ranging from a few months old to 5 years old and different backgrounds come to the centre to learn what most of us take for granted - how sound is associated with learning on every level. The teachers are specialized and dedicated, but its the parents of the kids who are the real engines behind each child’s progress.
Rishi brought his daughter to I Hear early on. Now, she’s in the fourth grade of a normal school and coping as well as any of her non deaf classmates. She has an implant at assists her to hear a bit but it’s the knowlege and techniques she’s learnt at the foundation that have taught her to speak normally and have a ‘normal’ life.
“I Hear is like a temple for us” he says - “without their help, who knows what her future would be.”
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 5:11 am
The more the social and health problems of India are brought to light in this blog, the more amazed I become at the neglience of the Indian government and society as a whole. First is why deafness has become a leading birth defect in India. Secondly, why when an organization such as the I Hear Foundation works and has more than a pressing need to expand, is it kept at a minimal level existence for a statistically lucky few. The World Health Organization should enter India to study and discover the full extent of such a negligent environment in the country and bring it to international attention. With ambitious projects such as landing a probe on the far side of the moon near the top of the nation’s agenda, what has happened to the decision making process for the benefits of large numbers of India’s citizens?!!
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
First off, thanks Dheera; and thank you David for the comment. I am one of the trustees at IHF and I can’t begin to tell you the issues we have with funding, and awareness generally. I figure that because deafness is invisible it tends to be ignored. There is growing awareness to be sure but the process is excruciatingly slow. One of the things that seems to be given very low priority is affordable space (and this is NOT a funding appeal, just a statement of fact). When IHF deals with children it needs a certain amount of space; because the attention has to be invididualized, this is typically less than a regular classroom, but you do need space nonetheless. What hurts us most of all is the glacial pace at which Government support comes, if it comes at all.
And here’s the thing: more and more we find non-profits doing the very things the government should be doing anyway, while the government’s chosen role is very often that of obstructor rather than facilitator. Why this is I cannot say. We bash on regardless.
It’s uncharitable to the IHF staff to attribute our success to mere luck. They have worked very hard and, finally, this year we are now getting some recognition from official quarters. Hopefully, our plans to expand awareness and reach will soon be within reach.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 3:48 pm
David, what Dheera has written is far from the truth. I am pained to see my country painted in such fashion on the international forum. I request Dheera to research before publishing such blogs that bring disrepute to India. I myself am working in two institutions in Amritsar who provide education and rehabilitation to the deaf and speech impaired children (http://www.pingalwaraonline.org/endeavours/deaf.htm) and the other is run by Red Cross Society of Amritsar.
Here is the list of some of the other institutions for deaf in India.
Deaf Associations in India
•National Association of the Deaf
•All India Federation of the Deaf, based in New Delhi (national organization).
•Andhra Pradesh Association for the Deaf
•Bihar Association of the Deaf
•Bhopal Deaf Association
•Delhi Association of the Deaf (www.delhiassociationofdeaf.org)
•Calcutta - Society for the Deaf
•Ghaziabad Association For The Deaf in Uttar Pradesh state
•Madras Deaf Club in Madras, Tamil Nadu
•Madras Association of the Deaf
•Malabar Association Of The Deaf & Blind in Calicut (Kerala)
•Orissa Assocation Of The Deaf
•Tamil Nadu State Federation Of The Deaf
Schools for the Deaf in India
The states and cities I was able to find, are listed below.
•Andhra Pradesh has many schools for the deaf, in Chittoor, Cuddupah, Godavari, Guntur, Hyderabad, Kakinada, Karimnagar, Kirshan, Kuppam, Nalgonda, Nellore, Prakasham, Proddatur, Punganur, Secunderabad, Tirupati, Visakhapatnam, Viziangaram, Vijayawada, and Warangal.
•Assam - Govt Bhawani Devi Sarawagi Sch. For Deaf
•Bihar - Arrah Deaf & Dumb School in Bhojpur
•Delhi has schools in New Delhi. One school is run by the All India Deaf & Dumb Society.
•Goa
•Sanjay School For The Hearing Handicap, Goa
•Shree Gujrati Samaj School For Deaf & Dumb, Margao
•Gujarat has schools for the deaf in Adipur, Ahmedabad, Balsad, Baroda, Bharuch, Bhavnagar, Gandhinagar, Himatnagar, Jamnagar, Junagadh, Kachehh, Mahesana, Palanpur, Rajkot, Sabar Kantha, Surendranagar, Surat
•Jammu & Kashmir
•School For Hearing Impaired, Jammu
•School For The Hearing Handicap J&K, Jammu Tawi
•Deaf & Dumb School, Srinagar
•Haryana
•Mata Prakash Kaur Welfare Centre For Hearing School & Speech Handicapped, Karnal
•Himachal Pradesh - Deaf & Dumb School in Simla.
•Karnataka has schools in Bangalore, Belgaum, Bellary, Dandeli, Dharwar, Gulbarga, Kamagere, Kolar, Mysore, and Sirsi.
•Kerala - has several schools, in Calicut, Kasargod, Kottayam, Malappuram, Manakala, Moovattupuzha, Quilon, Thiruvalla, Thrichur, Trichur, and Wayanad.
•Maharashtra has schools in Ahmednagar, Akola, Aurangabad, Chandrapur, Dombivali, Gadchiroli, Kolhapur, Mumbai (Bombay), Nashik, Parbhani, Poona, Pune, Ratnagiri, Raigad, Sangli, Satura, Sindhudurg, Sholapur, Solapur, Thane,
•Manipur has a government deaf school.
•Madhya Pradesh has Anand Niketen School For Hearing Handicapped in Bilaspur
•Nagaland has the Boarding School For Deaf & Dumb in Dimapur.
•Orissa - Orissa has many schools for the deaf, and schools for the blind and deaf, in Baragarh, Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Bolangir, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Kalahandi, Kamaraj, Keonjhar, Khurda, Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Phulbani, Puri, Sambalpur, and Sundargarh.
•Pondicherry has a Governmentt School For The Blind, Deaf & Dumb
•Punjab has schools in Faridkot, Jullender, Ludhiana, and Patiala.
•Rajasthan has schools in Ajmer, Bikaner Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, Sirohi.
•Sikkim does not seem to have a school for the deaf but does have a unit for deaf children within a hearing school in Gangtok.
•Tamil Nadu has many schools, including those in Chennai, Coimbatore, Dharmapuri, Kancheepuram, Kanyakumari, Madras, Madurai, Mayiladutuvinm, Nilgiris, North Arcot, Periyar, Pudukkottai, Ramanand, Salem, Tanjore, Tiruchy, Tirunelveli, Trichy, Tutioorn, and Vellore.
•Tripura has a school in North Tripura and another in West Tripura.
•Uttar Pradesh has a school in Ghaziabad.
•West Bengal has schools in Burdwan, Calcutta, Darjeeling, Howrah, Midnapore, Murshidabad and Parganas
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
Other deaf schools in India.
•Project Deaf India (www.projectdeafindia.org/), a joint project of Rotary Club Newport Balboa, California in the United States and the Rotarians of Rotary Mysore in India’s Mysore, Karnataka state. Project Deaf India focuses on total communication schools and technical education for deaf people in India.
•Sense International India (www.senseintindia.org/htmls/index.html) partners with more than twenty organizations working with the deaf or blind, to encourage them to add services for deafblind people. Their home page estimates that India has over 400,000 deafblind children. One of Sense’s partners is The Helen Keller Institute for Deaf and Deafblind, Mumbai, Maharastra, which runs a school for deafblind children, and provides training for working with and teaching deafblind people.
•Voice for the Deaf is a project of the Family Care Foundation (www.familycare.org/index.html) that works with deaf and hard of hearing children in Hyderabad, Mysore, and Secunderabad. Voice for the Deaf offers computer education and starts job ventures such as earmold-making laboratories.
Deaf Ministries in India
Deaf ministries working in India fill educational gaps, providing vocational training and running small Christian schools. A few examples of deaf ministries (and some regular non-deaf ones) active in India:
•Asian Aid USA (www.asianaidusa.org/) is associated with the Seventh Day Adventist church, and it supports a deaf school in Kollegal, Karnakata state.
•Catholic Mission in Australia (www.catholicmission.org.au) supports a school for the blind and deaf in Madras.
•Ebenezer Fellowship of the Deaf in Kerala(www.workersforjesus.com/dfi/s-46.htm)
•International Lutheran Deaf Association (www.lcmsdeaf.org/ilda/ILDAmis.html)has a mission project in India supporting the Ep-phatha Lutheran Deaf School.
•Maharashtra Deaf Fellowship of India (http://www.societyforthedeaf.org/) is active in Aurangabad, Bombay, Nagpu, Nasik, and Pune.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 4:05 pm
National Association of the Deaf
Background to N.A.D
“Let us come together, know or rights and claim them”
The long-awaited formation of the National Association of the Deaf in India took place on December 3rd 2005, to coincide with World Disability Day. This is the first national grass roots organisation of its kind for the deaf, and it proposes to be one that is of the people and for the people. An organisation that is truly representative of the deaf community in India.
While there have been other organisations working for the deaf in India in the past, there has yet to be one strong organisation capable of uniting deaf people across India. N.A.D hopes to bring deaf communities together from across the different states in India in order to cultivate a united front. By this means, deaf people will be able to stand together and claim the rights that they are entitled to.
The ethos behind N.A.D is about showing deaf people in India that they are able to lead the way for their own community and claim their rightful place in society. Too long have deaf persons suffered from an unsatisfactory education system, poor opportunities in life and a lack of understanding and support from family and the public at large. With the establishment of N.A.D, deaf people in India can now look forward and hope for a bright and better future.
N.A.D.’s Aims
•To promote the rights and quality of life of deaf and hard of hearing individuals in India.
•To foster a united front of deaf people across the different states of India
•To promote equal rights at all levels and in all fields of life.
•To encourage the interaction of deaf people through meetings, at both national and regional levels, sports meetings and political rallies.
•Lobbying Government bodies and policy makers to ensure that the rights of deaf people are taken into account.
•Creating public awareness and educating others on the current issues and problems concerning deaf people.
•To ensure the empowerment of deaf people so that they are economically self-sufficient, educationally sound, and have their rightful place in society.
N.A.D News
Human Rights Education for the Deaf
To coincide with N.A.D aiming to increase the rights of deaf people in India, it has started an education programme for the deaf population of India on the subject of Rights and the Law. In a society where human rights violations are ever present, the organisation feels it is important to raise awareness amongst the deaf in India about their rights, as well as the rights of others.
At the recent annual National Deaf Youth Conference, held in Mangalore between the 28th and 31st of January, sessions were held on Rights and the Law and presented to the 180 participants at the conference. Considering the mixed abilities of the group present, these sessions were very basic and a simple introduction to the idea of human rights and the concepts and principles that human rights are based on. The group in attendance were very receptive to the sessions, despite having different themes and new ideas introduced to them for the first time. Their eagerness to learn portrayed their willingness to acquire this new knowledge and also their desire to be able to stand up as a united group and claim their rights.
The sessions were recorded and will be compiled onto a CD, along with a series of sessions on Human Rights Education. These will be sent to deaf schools and friendship clubs across India, reaching as many deaf children as possible. The current problem in all schools across India is that Human Rights Education is not included at all in the school curriculum. These CDs will hopefully go some way in redressing this problem, providing the much-needed education to one of the more marginalised groups in India today.
N.A.D Consultation on Deaf Education
The National Association of the Deaf held its first and pioneering Consultation on Deaf Education at the Indian International Centre on Thursday 9th February. This was a unique conference and perhaps the first of its kind in India. Government officials, NGOs and experts in the field sat alongside deaf community members in order to discuss education of the deaf from a new and fresh perspective: the Deaf Perspective. Not only did this workshop offer an opportunity to debate and discuss new ideas, it also opened minds and paved the way for future developments in the field of Deaf Education.
The two presentations of the day were led by Dr. Surinder Randhawa from Rourkee, who presented on the current status of Deaf Education in India and the issues of concern and Dr. Madan Vasishta from Gallaudet University, who shared his vision about ‘choices’ that should be made available to all deaf children at various ages.
Each session was followed by an open floor discussion and at the end of the day all participants at the conference culminated their thoughts and ideas in order to compile a position paper on Deaf Education, chartering a plan for further action. Several valuable points and recommendations were raised.
•The need for a mass awareness campaign promoting sign language and the rights of deaf people in general.
•That communication and the role of information were of vital importance and that early intervention was essential, targeting parents of deaf children as well as sensitising Doctors to deafness and the issues involved
•The need for networking and the sharing of skills, ideas and experience.
•The need to evolve a credible assessment system to evaluate, assess and certify trainers and trainers of trainers.
•The necessity to introduce sign language into the education of deaf children in special schools as well as being included in the school curriculum for all
•The role of interpreters emphasised as being fundamental for a deaf person to be able to fully participate in society
•The need to have more sign language courses available.
Moreover, it was stressed that this should all be done with participation of deaf people as the first precondition:
“Deaf persons themselves need to be included and involved in this process in an important way while making decisions at all levels.”
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Deaf schools in New Delhi.
Ali Yavar Jung Institute of Hearing Handicapped
Lajpat Nagar
Schools for Blind & DeafAll India Confederation of the Blind
Rohini
Schools for Blind & DeafAll India Federation of the Deaf
New Delhi H.O.
Schools for Blind & DeafAll India Federation of the Deaf Training Center
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Schools for Blind & DeafAndh Maha Vidyalaya
New Delhi H.O.
Schools for Blind & DeafBlind Welfare Society
Nangloi
Schools for Blind & DeafBlooming Birds School
Noida
Schools for Blind & DeafEast Asia Committee of The International Federation of Blinds
Malviya Nagar
Schools for Blind & DeafGovernment Lady Noyce Secondary School for the Deaf
Indraprastha H.O.
Schools for Blind & DeafGovernment Model Senior Secondary School
Maidens Hotel
Schools for Blind & DeafGovernment Secondary School for Blind Boys
G.T.B. Nagar
Schools for Blind & Deaf Model School for Mentally Deficient Children
Lajpat Nagar
Schools for Blind & DeafMultipurpose Training Center for the Deaf
D.D.A. Munirka
Schools for Blind & DeafNursery Primary School for the Deaf
G.T.B. Nagar
Schools for Blind & DeafPerfect Foundation School
Palam Enclave
Schools for Blind & DeafRaghudev Memorial School of Vocational Studies
New Delhi H.O.
Schools for Blind & DeafSociety for Child Development - Prabhaat School
Wazirpur Phase III
Schools for Blind & DeafSurbhi Speech and Hearing Centre
MayapuriSchools for Blind & DeafVak-Shravan
Tilak Nagar
Schools for Blind & Deaf
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
Dear Jasmin, Many thanks for what is a Herculean research effort on your part. The vast number and variety of organizations you’ve produced to help the deaf is more than reassuring. However, I still remain perplexed as to how help for the deaf still remains to be in such a critical state. I hope that Dheera can further help to clarify the extent of the situation.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
Thanks David. I can only tell you about the situation in my state-Punjab. There are not many deaf-dumb/1000 live births here. The children who have this disability get education in the special schools here. Much depends upon the literacy level and social status of the parents. Some parents do not send their wards to these schools and are over-protective about their care. I am in school health deptt and we try our best to find the hearing impaired in schools and our health workers who visit homes as part of their duty, motivate parents, if they find such children. One of the best institutions in Punjab is run by a charitable trust in Amritsar. I work there on honorary basis. You should visit this link and see what these people are doing for special people, particularly the deaf and the speech impaired. Please visit: http://www.pingalwaraonline.org/endeavours/deaf.htm for deaf and http://www.pingalwaraonline.org for their other works.
Thanks.
on Jun 24th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
David, read more about deaf child care in India in this link: http://www.phonakindia.in/ConsumerPedriatics