New Delhi: Union Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawarchand Gehlot on Monday said the government is committed to bring all 'Divyangjan' into the mainstream and lauded the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) for bringing out a dictionary of 6,000 sign language words.
The minister speaking at the 'Sign Language Day' event here said the ISLRTC, an autonomous body under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, should add 4,000 new sign words to it by 2020.
"The government is committed to bring all 'Divyangjan' into the mainstream. Sign languages have an ancient history and nowadays, these are being developed in a modern manner. Efforts are also on to bring uniformity in these sign languages at national and international level," he said.
Awards were distributed among the winners of the 2nd Indian Sign Language Competition 2019 during the programme. For the competition, entries had been invited from Delhi-NCR-based children with hearing disabilities on jokes, stories and essays in Indian Sign Language.
The programme included cultural performances like drama and songs in ISL by the students and faculty members of the ISLRTC and presentation of awards to children with hearing disability.