Thousands march on World Disability Day to demand ISL recognition

New Delhi, Dec 3 (UNI) Thousands of the hearing impaired today held a 'solidarity march' from India Gate to Rajpath demanding 'alloting' of the IAS cadre to Mani Ram Sharma and recognition of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) as a scheduled language of India.

The 'march', organised by the National Association of the Deaf to mark World Disability Day, later turned to a 'dhrana' on Rajpath, where it was denied permission by the police to move ahead to meet Minister of Social Justice Meira Kumar.

Protestors said if a qualified person like M R Sharma was being being denied justice what could they expect from the government for the common hearing impaired.

''We are waiting for Ms Meira Kumar, the minister, to come and assure us on our demands,'' said National Association of the Deaf spokesperson Ms Purba, adding unless this was done we won't budge from the place and keep sitting in the open all through the cold night.

We also want that the ISL be given its due and be recognised as a scheduled language with all the status of any of the other 22 gazetted official languages recognised under the Constitution, she told UNI.

''This was imperative if some semblence of equal opportunity was to be given to the disabled lot in the country. The ISL was like the 'mother tongue' of the hearing impaired and neglecting it would mean not recognising their very status.'' By not recognising it, the barriers in society for them that exist today would remain and this would tantamount to justice denied to them as the lack of it isolates them from the mainstream, she added.

UNI AN KD RS1931