Today all Indians celebrated 26th January 2014 with pride and honor. It may have been a regular celebration for each and every Indian across the country. However for the first time in its 65th Republic Day celebrations Indian Deaf Community had access to the details of the celebrations due to the presence of Indian Sign Language interpreters. This moment will be marked as one of the most important moments in Indian Deaf history. This has been possible only due to the perseverance of the Deaf community, National Association of the Deaf and Disabled Rights Group who have demanded through various petitions, meetings and protests with the Ministry of India. This has not been a very easy journey for the Indian Deaf community. With numerous meetings with Major heads of the Ministry, ruling members and members of the opposition party, the National Association of the Deaf NAD, Disabled Rights Group DRG this has today been a dream come true. We have received information from Deaf friends from far and wide that they have sat glued to the television sets to experience the Republic Day celebrations on 26th Jan 2014. Even though we see smiles on Deaf friends faces we still feel a gloom because the telecast with Indian Sign Language Interpretation has not been made available on DD National. It was available on DD News, DD Bharati, DD urdu and a few private channels.
The Deaf Community shall not lose hope. We are happy that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has understood our demand. We also appreciate their efforts to make this come true. However we still do demand that we get access to information not just once in a year, but throughtout. May our Silent voices be heard far and wide.