BANGALORE: It was a protest demo but devoid of the usual decibel level. Instead, a flurry of signs and gestures waved above a crowd, which had gathered near Minsk Square on Wednesday. The demonstration, organised by the Deaf Association of Karnataka near the Office of the Director of the Disabled, was to urge the State Government to consider the plight of the hearing impaired in the field of education. The protesters said a number of hearing impaired students found it difficult to pursue their education, especially in technical fields, after SSLC. There was an institute at Mysore, which offered technical diploma to disabled students but the lecturers were not specialised in sign language. This made was difficult for such students to follow subjects and they were unable to clarify their doubts with lecturers.

Thus over 600 of these students ended up dropping out of the course.

"We need an exclusive institute for the hearing impaired with specialised sign language lecturers to teach such students. We need a pre-university college, an institute that offers bachelor's degrees in Computer and Commerce related subjects. We hope for an institute in Computer Engineering," said C.N. Vijayraj, President, Deaf Association of Karnataka.

H.K. Kumaraswamy, Minister for Women and Child Development, who met the protesters, promised them a PU college and a degree college in two years.

The Deaf Association of Karnataka told The Hindu it was prepared to fund the project on its own.

"The Government has offered us its support but we will not wait for them. Any delay by the Government will cause delay in the education," said Mr. Vijayraj.

The association planned to set up three pre-university colleges for the hearing impaired and hopes to carry on with a degree college expansion in future.

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