A.

Describe the problem you're trying to solve* (in 2000

characters or less)
There are 18 million HEARING IMPAIRED people in India as reported by National Association for
the Deaf, that is 1% population of India. In Punjab, the number of deaf cannot be accurately
stated. Additionally, standard of education for majority of the deaf is very low in India. Deaf
children should be introduced to language as early as possible. This ensures their mental
development and relationship building with the others. Here lies the critical role of their
education.

During our experience of the past 11 years, we could not come across a sign language
interpreter in Punjab who is registered with Rehabilitation Council of India.

During our outreach visits in villages, we found that only 10% of the deaf cases would go to
school. The rest 90% remain without any education resulting in behavioral problems, poor self-
esteem and an un-worthy life. The social, emotional & economic cost of this fact is very high to
the child & his/her family. Such cases are thought of as a financial burden by the family, rather
than them trying to finding a solution.

In Punjab, presently there is no government run program that looks after needs of the deaf
children from birth to 2 Years of age. The state of the deaf children is pitiable.

We have interviewed nearly 500 parents of deaf children so far. The reason for deafness of the
children varies, but majority of the cases of deafness appear to be because of the baby’s
sickness (jaundice, high fever), accidents, overdose of medicines and lack of awareness. With
some help, 50% of these cases are preventable.
The other reasons are very low literacy level & resources of the parents. They are not capable
of learning themselves/ teaching their child the Sign Language due to their predisposed
assumptions that deaf cannot be educated, economic and logistic limitations also play an
important role. There is very little information available to the parents about how to bring up
their deaf children.

Therefore, the task of educating their deaf children has to be taken by someone competent
enough.

Current legislation and policy in terms of the Deaf is wholly lacking. While The Disabilities Act
1995, reserves 3% seats for disabled students in all Government educational institutions and
other educational institutions receiving aid from the Government as per Clause 39. It mandates
that every child with a disability till the age of 18 years, should have access to free education.
Its endeavor is to promote integration of students with disabilities into regular schools as well
as the setting up of special schools and to equip them with vocational training facilities (Clause
26).

To put in precise key points:

1. Early Intervention is non-existent in rural districts.
2. No appropriate communication medium is developed between child and his/her
parents.
3. Absence of schools for deaf within 50km radius.
4. Lack of basic information regarding different disabilities at family/ community level.
5. Already grown up deaf children with no education and bleak possibility of employment.
6. Very low financial status of affected families in many instances.
7. No evidence of any help from government agencies.
8. Unwillingness/ Lack of belief of teachers (govt. & private schools) about possibility of
higher education of deaf children.

B. How do you intend to solve the problem?* Describe your

approach and the progress you have made since you have
started. (in 2000 words or less)
We are already working on this subject by operating a school for the Dead. Two key project
verticals have taken shape namely- Regional Centres & Outreach

We run a Residential School for the Deaf inside ALL INDIA PINGALWARA CHARITABLE SOCIETY
Manawala Complex in Amritsar, Punjab since 2007 and is growing with the leadership of IAF GP.
Capt. (retired)Mr. Rajinderpal Singh. The school was started with just two rooms and a single
part-time teacher. All the services are rendered free of cost which include basic necessities of
all children.

Presently we have 150 students and 14 teachers. The school is run with very good technical
support and proactive staff since inception. The school has XXXXXXX classrooms.
The school started its operations with the technical and financial support from-

1. ASL University, USA

2. Home of Hope Inc., Berkley, California, USA
3. Centre for Early Intervention on Deafness, Berkley, USA.
4. Several Philanthropic individuals.

Our Approach has been shaped by the following fact- Even after a child spends 12 years in a
traditional/ urban class deaf school, most of them are unable to even read and write other than
crammed up syllabus. We strive to avoid / reduce this gap by following measures-
a. Competent sign language teachers are hired to teach.
b. Deaf children are taught in their first language i.e. sign language. (Most deaf kids even in
cities go to schools meant for hearing students, where no special provision of teaching sign
language is present.)
c. Sign language is used to develop the second language/ mother tongue of the deaf (in our
case it is Punjabi Language).
d. Curriculum is prepared as per individual needs for maximum cognitive development of the
child.

In the absence of any prior sign language for Punjabi alphabets, the students were reluctant to
learn Punjabi. Thus our organisation’s pioneers developed the first Punjabi sign language
dictionary which is being used by other schools of the state. 3 more books are under print. All
the literature is free of cost.
In 2007, there was no curriculum tailored to meet the needs of each deaf child we had with us.
This has been our major concern and continuous efforts are on to update the curriculum.
To make the curriculum more effective, we have hundreds of tailor made lesson plans &
presentations relating to sign language and other subjects. This is proving to be very effective
tool to teach the deaf. Moreover valuable curriculum support is received from Gallaudet
University, USA & Centre for Early Intervention of Deafness (Berkley, California) in the form of
articles, syllabi, lesson plans and teaching methodologies.
After successfully incorporating the resources to run an effective program/school, management
felt the residential program is a bottleneck to scale up. Our projects need more efforts to
generate benefits in real sense to those in need, namely OUTREACH / ONBOARDING &
OPERATING REGIONAL CENTRES.

OUTREACH TEAM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR-

Door to door healthcare related guidance/assistance to Hearing Impaired and Multi Disabled.
Early Intervention

REGIONAL SCHOOL TEAM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR-

Coordinate with Central Branch for curriculum & daily/weekly reporting.
Regional Outreach

CENTRAL BRANCH TEAM

Organise all the above activities.
Develop IT enabled MIS (not yet developed).

Specific services needed to achieve those outcomes are

1. Transportation – a small vehicle to carry the team and the screening equipment.
2. Equipment a. Portable screening OAE. b. Otoscope. c. Tympanometer.
3. Team Members
 a. Speech therapist
b. Social worker
c. Deaf role model.
d. Driver/ helper.

4. Other Resources - Psychological Services , Physiotherapy Centre, Content Manager, Legal

Advisor, Central Heads
5. Building - Webinar room (Primary Need), Operations room, Library/ info room

IN A NUTSHELL-
EDUCATING THE DEAF
MAKING THEM EMPLOYABLE
ONBOARDING LEFT OUT CHILDREN, EARLY INTERVENTION.

C. Are you applying to N/Core for a new initiative? If yes,

please describe how is it different from what you have been
doing till now.* (in 2000 words or less)

NO.