The Indian Sign Language Academy - A Work Update

Back in February the Finance Minister announced in his budget funding for a Sign Language academy. The Deaf Way Foundation Director, Arun C. Rao, wrote a blog post and detailed his delight alongside his concerns that the Deaf community would not have effective participation in decisions as to how the academy would be run.

Here’s some background: India has over 500 schools for the Deaf, only two of which use Sign Language. The trend is very much towards the oral, audist approach of teaching and is therefore not successful. The government provides this schooling up to class eight. With the bare minimum for any employment worth considering a pass at the 10th class with any decent job requesting a class 12 minimum standard, Deaf people have been left behind for years. The academy should push forward the agenda of bilingualism and create Sign Language modules for the B.Ed. programme that teachers of the Deaf must take before being let off their leashes in the classroom. In short, teachers have been, for years, teaching in a language the children do not understand.

Interpreter provision is sketchy at best, non-existent at its worst. Interpreters are mostly provided by NGOs  such as Deaf Way and ad hoc interpreting done by bilingual family and friends. Deaf people complain that the interpreters trained by the government organisation are unintelligible and the classes mostly teach Deaf studies and basic sign language. Deaf Way will be delivering the first of five courses in August directly to those already working and skilled giving them quality teaching on ethics, interpreting theory and practical ways of improving and supporting themselves after the course.

The centre will ultimately give Indian Sign Language (ISL) the due it deserves and if successful in its current proposed form, the centre could be the biggest Sign Language Research centre in the world. The Indian government has the chance to bring forward ISL and the efforts of the Deaf community into line and even become a global leader in Sign Language linguistics.

One thing that surprises me is ISL has no real body of literature yet. There are no Deaf film producers, actors, poets, writers or presenters here as there are in the UK. The academy will encourage the Deaf community to be creative and will catalogue the results showcasing them at film festivals and other celebrations of the language.

In all the belated and important work being proposed what I am working on is just a start. The interpreter training is the main task, alongside side providing interpreter support and consultation for the National Association for the Deaf (NAD) in creating their government proposal for the academy. These proposals have been circulated within the Deaf community and consultations have proved fruitful. I was working on the proposals with NAD right up until I left for my holiday to ensure all feedback was included and the budgets were feasible. It gives me great pleasure to read another one of Arun’s posts and see the NAD proposals are being well received by those in the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. It looks like Deaf people and ISL will finally get the recognition they deserve.  

Single, White, Female

Solo?

Yes solo.

Just one?

Yes just one.

No man?

No man.

On average I had this conversation twice a day whilst away in Malaysia. It’s not like this isn’t part of daily life in India though:

Shaadi?

No, not married.

Bachche?

No. No children.

Where are your family?

UK.

You don’t miss them?

Yes I do.

No husband?

Noooo.

How old are you?

37 (Cue short intake of breath).

By Indian standards I’m a bit odd. By UK standards I’m a bit of an anomaly but less so and actually who cares? Thing is, judging by the amount of books written about lone female travellers I really thought I wasn’t that different. But you travel round or live anywhere for a while in Asia and you’ll notice you’re still a rarity. One man even asked before I started a jungle trek if I wasn’t scared I’d get lost. Travelling is bad enough, but what are the stereotypes and cultural pressures in India as a single female?

I’ve had chats with friends who say everyone they know is in a love marriage or that they aren’t being pressurised into an arranged marriage. But then they are the lucky ones. However strong the social pressure is to be married with kids in the UK, here it is far worse. Many more women report pressure from parents, endless meetings with potential partners and Shaadi.com, I kid you not, is pretty popular.  Some have secret boyfriends whom they wish to marry but their parents won’t let them as they are in different strata of society. Men too face pressure from eager parents keen to fulfil their social obligations. The topic of sex is taboo. Because of this certain parks are known as lovers’ make out places and the abortion rate is on the increase.

This is Delhi. It’s the capital city and conservative compared to Mumbai. But those who are approaching their 30s that have the strength, social position or freedom to rebel do so. Parents may insist on arranged marriages but the lucky ones are allowed their choices. Elsewhere those from more moderate backgrounds or more rural areas are under more pressure. Child marriage, before the age of 18, is well documented and prevalent in rural communities. Kids as young as 11 are paired off and girls are often pregnant with their first child by 12 or 13. Once married there may be other issues.

Dowry torture, where a wife’s new family may try to kill off the bride so the husband can remarry and bring a new dowry to the family is often in the news. Less reported are false accusations that can damage a husband’s family and its reputation.

Many of these social problems stem from an ingrained culture of boys having more value than girls in society. This causes female infanticide where female foetuses are unwanted and therefore aborted. In the case of child marriage a lack of women causes communities to want to get the girls and marry off their offspring early.  

Whether in the city or rural, male or female, the stereotypes and cultural pressure exist. I’m no expert on these issues and they run much deeper than what I have stated here. Still, anyone can clearly see the effects old prejudices have on today’s society. It may not be easy being in your 30s, single and living with India’s slow cultural change but as a gori I get it easy.

Pic from: Daily Times  

India Vs The Rest of the World

I took my credit card, a budget from my savings and for my birthday did what I always do: took off somewhere tropical to do some diving. Indian and Sri Lankan dive sites are currently out of season so it was off to Malaysia – home to Pulau Sipadan in Borneo, one of the top ten dive sites in the world. En route and on my return I went to KL, Kota Kinabalu, Semporna, Sepilok, Penang and back to KL to take in some sights, Orangutans and some tasty food. I  had a list made for me of must eats from another volunteer so steadily worked my way through Malaysia's famous dishes such as Laksa and Rendang. I also met up with two ex-VSO volunteers in Penang who regaled me with tales of life post VSO and took me out for some delicious Baba Nyonya food.

On my first trip out of India in eight months I found that I’d forgotten what the rest of the world was like. I’ve seen enough of India to know it is at least five countries rolled into one. The colder, mountainous North of the Himalayan belt has its Tibetan influences. The richer South has the tourists’ havens of Kerala and Goa alongside Orissa and Chennai where the local women wear every colour of sari as long as it’s bright. There are the more isolated, troubled yet beautiful Eastern states of Assam and around. The West contains the ports of Gujurat and cities such as Mumbai that have played an important part in India’s economic development. The varied central states from Rajasthan to Delhi to West Bengal are characterised by a dry heat and plenty of religious places: Bodhgaya the birthplace of Buddhism and Hindu mecca Varanasi on the Ganges.

No matter its different forms, India is still unmistakably India. It’s bewildering, confusing, noisy and altogether different. So what does the rest of the world have that India doesn’t? Malaysia was a welcome reminder. Public toilets (men don’t piss on the street here), pavements (India has them but people use them to park bikes and scooters), people that don’t stare (they wave and say hello), transport is easier to navigate and on time (I got stranded once in a town at 4.30am as the night bus was early) and a huge mix of people from the influx of immigrants. Malaysia has a high Indian and Chinese population, extant for up to four generations. In reality, they are not afforded the same rights as Malays and this is causing unrest and mass migration. KL also had skyscrapers. Delhi buildings are rarely over six stories so for the first time since leaving built-up London I walked around looking skywards.

Despite all this, after 10 or so days I may have missed India. Just a little bit, but don’t tell anyone. A country so diverse from within it doesn’t suffer culturally or otherwise from a lack of immigrants. The food is obviously great. I avoided all the Indian dhabas in Malaysia in preference of pretty much anything with beef or seafood. Now I am back it is tasty, flavourful masala doused dishes all the way. It’s not that there is animosity here. You just need to work harder to meet people before being rewarded with their excellent hospitality. I’m taking my work colleague up on that offer of a roti making lesson as soon as I see her. Why do I need to marvel at the mosques of Malaysia or if I was in Europe, churches? Here I can see mandirs, gurdwaras, mosques, churches and Buddhist and Jain temples in every neighbourhood. Most stalls or shops even have their own shrines with incense burning away inside. My Saturday morning trips to replenish stocks are always interesting. And there is a reason the world loves Bollywood. It’s brilliant. One Malaysian taxi driver was singing songs to me on the way to the airpoirt. I declined his marriage proposal but that’s another story.

For all its confusion, India will never be boring. Even after eight months I still find it exciting, wonderful, intriguing and colourful. I could carry on with a whole host of adjectives but I think you get the picture: I still quite like it here.