NAD Organises Dharna to Protest ISLRTC
The National Association of Deaf (NAD) organised a massive protest in Deaf to fight against the discrimination of ISLRTC against Deaf professionals.
ISLRTC is the Indian Sign Language Research And Training Centre in New Delhi. On 17th July ISLRTC’s Executive Committee meeting was held. NAD attended the meeting since it is an EC committee member. Mr Anuj Jain attended the meeting on behalf of Mr Narayanan who was out of country for attending the XVIII World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf in Paris. ISLRTC proposed invited applications for the post of Multimedia Designer for only hearing individuals.
Mr. Anuj Jain completely disagreed to open this post for hearing. He said that ISLRTC already had Deaf Designer who is in contractual post from last 1 year. An Assistant Professor of ISLRTC said that they face difficulty to communicate with Deaf designer, this is why they want to hire a hearing individual. ISLRTC already have 5 regular interpreters in their institute and their Professors also know sign language as well. Most importantly they are conducting Sign Language Diploma Course so how there could be communication barrier.
Associations such as the AYJNIHH, AIFDW, ASLI, ISLIA all protested and demanded post be open for Deaf individuals as well. Even after so many people voiced their disagreement, on 14th Aug 2019 the advertisement was released. This does not uphold the ideal of Deaf and Hearing equality that ISLRTC stands for. ISLRTC caters to Persons with Disability. This means that their work focuses on the development of People with Disability such as Deaf and other People with Disabilities. However their vacancy only for a Hearing person is completely against their responsibility to our community.
A.S. Narayanan, Mr. Anuj Jain and Ms. Preeti Sapra (Interpreter) met with the Joint Secretary, Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, New Delhi on 27th August 2019. They requested for them to withdraw this advertisement / extend date / simply add this post is suitable for Deaf and Hearing in the existing advertisement. He said we can’t make changes is existing advertisement and he also said this shows this post is suitable for Hearing that doesn’t mean it’s not suitable for deaf so deaf can also apply. They asked them to wait and assurance us that he would look into the matter.
However he was travelling from the 31st August to 4 th September 2019. And the last date for application was 3rd September 2019. Even after sending letters to various government officials there was no response and this is why they decided to protest at JANTAR MANTAR, NEW DELHI on 30th August 2019. During the protest, NAD demanded to meet the Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment. Since he was out of town, NAD met with his personal secretary and told about ISLRTC’s discrimination. They have put the Multimedia post for hearing on hold. They will collect all application till 3rd September as advertised but no further action will be taken on it. Another EC meeting will be conducted. The members will again decided and readvertise.
