IGNOU gets India’s first sign language training

NEW DELHI: Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first sign language training and research centre on the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) campus.

Sibal, along with Mukul Wasnik, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, also inaugurated the Centre for Sindhi Language and Culture (CSLC) at IGNOU. The Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), devoted to the hearing impaired, is supported by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Wasnik said this center was the first of its kind in India offering full time teaching combined with distance learning for short-term and full-fledged programmes. “We not only require enough trainers in this field, but interpreters too play a key role in the process,” he said.

The ISLRTC will  carry out research in the ISL, create linguistic record, analysis of the language, train people in sign linguistics and other related areas at various levels, design, and offer programmes in the ISL.