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Against all odds

Students prove that hearing impairment is no handicap for art appreciation

AT PAR The hearing impaired bag laurels

Conversations in sign language create an unusual silence in a packed auditorium on a peaceful Sunday evening, at the celebrations of the 10th anniversary of the Deaf Art & Cultural Society (DACS) an affiliate to the All India Deaf Art & Cultural Society, New Delhi.

The stage came alive with mime shows, Bharatnatyam by students of the Helen Keller School for the Deaf, National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped and Andhra Pradesh's first Deaf and Dumb Magician C. Ravi Chandra, who has 700 stage shows to his credit. "My son has been a member of DACS since 1998 and has got an opportunity to perform at many Cultural Festivals including the 8th World Deaf Magician Festival held at Nagpur in 2000," says Ravi's father.

Founded by K. Seshagiri Rao in 1996 the DACS is a platform that promotes an awareness of abilities, talents and skills of the hearing impaired with the objective of instilling confidence in them to be on par with hearing people. A decade of encouragement to their hearing impaired members has resulted in laurels at the National level in the Nritya Natika Mahotsava, Stage Magic, Silent Beauty contest, painting, drama and mime. DACS plans to host the 10th All India Cultural Festival of the Deaf at Hyderabad in 2007 with special hearing-impaired invitees from China.

There are four million hearing impaired people in India with approximately 25,000 in Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Ranga Reddy District alone. Yet there are few facilities made available to them be it in education or training with an insignificant 1% reservation in the employment sector. In reality it is the hearing people who turn a deaf ear to the needs of the hearing impaired. Time then to lend them your ears.

For information regarding membership/sponsorship of DACS programmes, please email jayaram_1962@rediffmail.com or SMS only on 98661 82018.

PADMINI B PATELL

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