Government launches ‘2nd Edition of ISL Dictionary’

Why in news

• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot on February 27, 2019 launched the ‘2nd Edition of Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary’.
• The dictionary has been prepared by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The second edition of dictionary includes total 6000 words. The first edition of the dictionary was launched on March 23, 2018 with 3000 words.

About 2nd Edition of ISL Dictionary

• The Dictionary includes total 6000 words under the categories of academic, legal, medical, technical and everyday terms.
• The dictionary videos contain the sign, the English term for the sign and pictures where relevant.
• A word list is also given with the English and Hindi equivalents of the signs.
• It has been made with the involvement of the hearing impaired community, by giving due consideration to their suggestions and understanding.
• The ISL Dictionary is also available on ISLRTC’s YouTube channel. Around 1000 videos have been uploaded already and the rest are in the process of being uploaded on YouTube.

Significance

1. According to Census 2011, there are 50.71 lakh hearing impaired persons in India. Most of the deaf people use Indian Sign Language to communicate.

2. The ISL Dictionary aims to offer these people the maximum number of words, which will not only expand their learning but also help them express their feelings and ideas in a better way.

3. The dictionary will serve as a resource for ISL teachers, ISL learners, teachers of the deaf people, interpreters, parents of hearing impaired children, researchers, etc.

4. Hearing impaired persons will benefit from this dictionary since they can look up information about a particular sign and its English/Hindi equivalents.

Pic courtesy:Devdiscourse