He compiled a few hundred sign languages used in cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Bengaluru in his book ‘An Introduction to Indian Sign Languages’. Two decades later, the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda University collated signs from across 42 places in the country and released a sign dictionary for 1,600 words. ISLRTC’s Dr Abhishek Shrivastav, who is working on the signs for legal words, says, “Like every language, sign language too has its own phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics. A recent survey by the ministry has found that there are merely 300 sign language interpreters in the entire country. Our aim is that each and every school should have at least one teacher who knows the sign language,” says the official.

Source: Indian Express January 22, 2017 21:37 UTC