We hear you: As CODA creates a buzz, stories of speech and hearing disabilities inspire awe

Tribune reporters

BORN to illiterate parents in a remote village of Alwar, Rajasthan, Mani Ram Sharma started losing his hearing ability at five and lost it completely by the time he turned nine. But this boy was made of sterner stuff. An IAS officer of the 2009 batch, Sharma (47) is the present Labour Commissioner, Haryana.

“When you come from a humble background, when your parents aren’t too educated, there is not much you are allowed to dream. The most they could wish for me was a sarkari job, but even that hope was lost when I became deaf. In a country where proper education for special kids is still a luxury, imagine a boy like me continuing his studies amidst jibes, hopelessness and no proper facilities. I couldn’t hear the teachers, but knew education was the only way to be heard.” says Sharma.

“The day I cleared Class X, my elated father took me to a government officer asking him to employ me as a peon, but he refused saying I couldn’t even hear a bell. My father was in tears and I told him that one day, I will be a big officer in government and here I am,” he adds.

In his second year in college, Sharma cleared the Rajasthan Public Service Commission examination to become a clerk-cum-typist. He went on to do his PhD and then cleared the UPSC. Among the top-rankers in 2005 and 2006, he couldn’t make it to the IAS as he was 100 per cent deaf. There was no provision by the Government of India for totally deaf candidates. Even this was not enough to deter him. He got cochlear implants with the help of well-wishers and cleared the UPSC again in 2009.

“When people with lower ranks were absorbed into IAS, IFS and other services and I was not, it shattered me. When a man can complete college and clear this most prestigious examination more than once, why do you think he won’t be able to be in an administrative job?

Hearing impairment, says the officer, is more of a mental and social hurdle than a physical one. “We need to facilitate better education and make jobs more inclusive, keeping in mind the needs of the deaf. The Centre has launched the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, which provides grants for surgery and cochlear implants, free of cost, for children up to the age of five,” he adds.

Deepak Dangi’s story is equally motivating. A speech-and-hearing impaired youth from Bandh village, Panipat, he is the first such person from Haryana to get a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA). Deepak got admission to Pt Lakhmi Chand State University of Performing and Visual Arts, Rohtak. Till then, the university would hand over diplomas to the speech-and-hearing impaired instead of the BFA degree as they could take only practicals, but not theory exams. Deepak (28) changed that with the help of his younger brother Amit. “Amit would come to the university, take notes from professors and students and helped him in preparing for exams,” recalls Vinay Kumar, who heads the Department of Visual Arts at the university. After completing his graduation, Deepak got employed as a fine arts teacher with the Haryana Welfare Society for Persons with Speech and Hearing Impairment. He is posted at Hisar where he teaches speech-and-hearing impaired students as he is also trained in sign language.

It was to dissuade her from nurturing any feeling of being left out that Jalandhar-based Malika Handa’s family decided to keep her engaged in indoor games, mainly chess. Long sessions with her father Suresh Handa and brother Atul made her excel in the game and Malika (27) went on to become the first Indian woman to win a gold medal in the International Deaf Chess Championship in 2016 in Armenia. So far, she has won six medals in the World and Asian Championships.

Says her mother Renu, “She’d get irritated a lot, especially when we would not understand what she was asking for. I taught her to draw things she wanted even before she started school. It was after Class X that she learnt the sign language. I have also partly learnt from her. Malika is a confident person now who speaks for herself.”

Like Malika Handa, hearing-impaired teenager Ananya Anand’s family has been his rock. A Class XII student of Cambridge International School (Co-Ed), Jalandhar, Ananya (17) has been scoring above 92 per cent. His mother Priti says, “He is able to lip-read and his cochlear implants help. He may have to learn sign language in another year when he goes to college. Personal tutors may not be possible at the higher level, but if one has a strong will to achieve something, there surely is a way out too.”

Bhavya Dhawaj Dadhich’s hearing ability may be impaired, but his handwriting, photography and driving skills are excellent. The 32-year-old has been working with the Haryana Public Relations Department as a cleaner since 2006. He is 100 per cent hearing-and- speech impaired since birth. His family’s efforts to get him treated at AIIMS during childhood did not succeed.

The youngest of four siblings, Bhavya lives with his mother Krishna Devi in Hisar. Hailing from Bhairi Akbarpur village in Uklana block, he studied till Class VIII from his village school and completed his Class XII from Haryana Open School.

His uncle Krishan Sharma said Bhavya’s family never faced any hurdles in communicating with him. His cousin Ruchika has gone the extra mile for Bhavya, pursuing a diploma to help him out.

During postings in Sirsa and Hisar, there has been plenty of appreciation, but no promotion. Bhavya has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking promotion, particularly as other state government departments have promoted their employees having similar status.

Amritsar’s Shiddat Singh, 13, is an aspiring and gifted painter. Her mother Rajni and Shiddat have been charting the difficult course of inclusive learning that is on offer. Not new to being labelled, she has grown to become an independent teen, who questions the lack of facilities and related problems that people with hearing impairement have to face.

Rajni has been a strong advocate of the need to shun the conventional approach to inclusive education. “Shiddat has 100 per cent hearing impairment and has been using a hearing aid since she was seven. We started her audio-verbal therapy when she was two, conditioning her brain to hear, stimulate and learn to speak through several planned activities,” she adds.

Choosing to give her daughter a right to equal opportunity, Rajni enrolled her in a mainstream school where Shiddat was offered individualised education. “Even special educators still engage in outdated methods to make them learn. There is an acute shortage of therapists who offer auditory-verbal therapy, which makes matters worse for children,” says Rajni. Shiddat had to move to Pune to a school that offers inclusive education. Her mother feels that lack of awareness, sensitisation, equal opportunity and quality resources limit their active participation in a functional society. “We need to focus on what they can do instead of what they cannot.”

“Schools, government agencies are clueless about the requirements of inclusive learning. Some schools are now introducing sign language. However, this is a half measure as the entire population cannot be made to learn it. Instead, create classrooms that are noise-free, with a visual set-up and offer individual, need-based education for the hearing impaired. While cochlear implant surgeries are being done free of cost, proper rehabilitation and audio-verbal therapy are important so that these kids not only hear sound, but also develop speech and language.”

Though hearing-and-speech impaired Sandeep Mehta (42) has already learnt sign language, his turmoil continues because people around him, including his family members, do not know it. His 84-year-old father Krishan Mehta says he has been struggling to understand his son since his birth. The Rajpura-based retired SP has to request his grandchildren to play the interpreter. “I feel very sad when I am unable to communicate with my son even after 42 years,” says the octogenarian, who still cherishes the hope of getting his son a job before he dies.

Ludhiana-based Sarita Mighani (53) may not understand sound, but she understands beauty. Unable to speak and listen, Sarita is a make-up artist. Surrounded by love and care, she passed Class X at a deaf and dumb school in Delhi and then did a diploma in beauty and grooming from Shahnaz Husain. Sarita was good in sports and won many medals in javelin throw.

After her marriage in 1998, her husband Amarjit Singh set up a salon at home in Ludhiana. “Initially, our niece would help Sarita in communicating with her clients but now all her clients understand her comfortably,” shares Amarjit.

While Sarita may now be comfortably placed in life, most parents of the hearing-impaired children always worry about what will happen to their child once they are gone. “The thought is as painful as the disability of the child. Even though our child is quite bright and independent, we just can’t get rid of this traumatic thought,” says Pramod, a welder. His son Aman (18) is a Class XII student at a special school in Dhalli, a suburb of Shimla. Lack of effective communication is another downer. “Thankfully, our younger son understands him really well. He has picked up the language, and he talks to Aman’s friends on video calls,” adds Pramod.

The other time parents get really anxious is when these kids have to travel to and back from school. “There’s so much traffic, we are always worried,” says Parwanoo-based Prakash Chand. His son Nishant (17) is a Class XI student at the Dhalli school and stays all by himself in a rented accommodation. “There should be hostel facilities for such children in every educational institution. It will make the life of such children and their parents so much easier,” he says.

DD’s panel of sign-language experts

Continuing with its decades old tradition, Doordarshan broadcasts sign language news bulletin for the hearing-impaired viewers daily between 7 pm and 7:15 pm. Says Programme Head Anoop Khajuria, “We still have a panel of sign language experts. Besides the daily bulletin, we also take their services for live commentary of key events. The commentary is shown in as picture-in-picture during the live telecast on DD News and DD Bharti channels.”

(Inputs from Sumedha Sharma, Sunit Dhawan, Deepkamal Kaur, Neha Saini, Karam Prakash, Manav Mander, Deepender Deswal and Subhash Rajta)