The Government primarily relies on Census data for demographic statistics of PwDs. According to the Census 2011, a total of 2.68 crore persons in India were reported as having disabilities out of which 19% have hearing disabilities. There are 42 institutes conducting Diploma in Sign Language Interpretation (DISLI) and 13 institutes conducting Diploma in Teaching Indian Sign Language (DTISL) for the deaf students. In the year 2024-25, the number of institutes conducting DTISL course have increased from 7 to 13 and institutes conducting DISLI course from 20 to 42.
Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) has taken following steps to spread awareness deafness and hearing loss:
• Currently, 665 students are undergoing training in the DISLI and DTISL at National Institutes and Composite Regional Centre under this Department.
• ISLRTC has conducted free awareness sessions at venues such as corporate, colleges, universities, etc. and sensitized more than 1,000 participants about deafness and ISL.
• The ISL dictionary developed by ISLRTC has been translated into 10 additional regional languages to facilitate accessibility for regional language users and expand its scope (apart from already included English and Hindi). The 10 languages – Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil and Telegu – have been updated in the ISL Dictionary.
• ISLRTC conducts an ISL Competition every year for deaf school children, and trainees of ISL courses such as DISLI, DTISL, D.Ed/B.Ed/M.Ed Special Education (HI) to encourage schools to promote the use of ISL.
Government has increased intake and number of batches of DISLI and DTISL courses in all centres across the country, states thr information provided by Union Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, B.L. Verma, in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.
