- International Sign Language Day’ was celebrated on September 23, 2019 by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), an autonomous body under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities.
- Theme: The theme of this year is “Sign Language-Rights for all”.
- Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot said that the Government of India is committed to bring all Divyangjans in to mainstream. He applauded ISLRTC for bringing out a Dictionary of 6000 Sign Language words and hoped that 4000 more new Sign Words will be added in to it by 2020.
About International Sign Language Day
- United Nations has declared 23rd September as International Sign Language Day.
- The objective of celebrating the sign language day is enhancing the awareness of sign language and making the reach of sign language to everyone.
- This day was formally accepted by the United Nations Assembly on 19th December, 2017.
- The first International Day of Sign languages was celebrated in 2018 under the theme “With Sign Language, Everyone is Included!”
- Sign Languages have an ancient history and now a days these are being developed in a modern manner. Efforts are also on to bring uniformity in these sign languages at national and international level.
Why on September 23?
- The proposal for the Day came from the World Federation of the Deaf (WFD), a federation of 135 national associations of deaf people, representing approximately 70 million deaf people’s human rights worldwide. The resolution A/RES/72/161 was sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, co-sponsored by 97 United Nations Member States and adopted by consensus on 19 December 2017.
- The choice of 23 September commemorates the date that the WFD was established in 1951. This day marks the birth of an advocacy organisation, which has as one of its main goals, the preservation of sign languages and deaf culture as pre-requisites to the realisation of the human rights of deaf people.
