Mumbai News: Deaf Associations Oppose SC PIL Seeking Compulsory ASL In Schools, Demand Protection Of Indian Sign Language

Mumbai: In a language dispute among the deaf community, multiple associations for the deaf persons across India have raised concerns against a recent public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the supreme court seeking the American Sign Language (ASL) to be made mandatory in schools for the hearing impaired. The associations have opposed the introduction of ASL and urged the chief justice of India to preserve and promote Indian Sign Language (ISL).

On July 31, The Free Press Journal reported that a Mumbai-based activist, working for the welfare of the community of persons with hearing impairment, filed a PIL with the supreme court to make ASL compulsory. He claimed that the move will open doors for the specially-abled youth to seek employment opportunities across the globe.

Indian Deaf Associations Raise Objections

However, the effort has not gone well with the Indian associations of deaf persons as they have opposed the PIL and have demanded that ISL should be safeguarded and promoted instead of making ASL mandatory. They highlighted that around 18 million deaf people in India have fought for the recognition that ISL commands today and is critical to the deaf culture in India as an indigenous language.

AIFD Calls Move ‘Discriminatory’

The All India Federation of the Deaf (AIFD), an ordinary member of the World Federation of Deaf, wrote to the chief justice of India that the demand to make ASL compulsory is deeply harmful, unconstitutional and discriminatory against the Indian deaf community. It claimed that the argument of ASL unlocking global job potential is misleading as global deaf communities use their own sign languages like BSL in the UK, JSL in Japan and LSF in France.

Cultural and Educational Threat

The letter, written by the federation’s general secretary Roshan Kumar on Thursday, claimed that introducing ASL would undermine decades of efforts and devalue ISL while forcing a foreign language on Indian deaf children is a violation of their cultural and linguistic identity as well as the right to education in their own language.

It also claimed that enforcing ASL would confuse students, divide the community and waste national resources citing that India has already invested significantly in ISL-based education, interpreter training and research.

Deaf Identity and Cultural Pride

“Just as Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, and other spoken Indian languages represent cultural pride, ISL represents the linguistic dignity of deaf Indians. Allowing ASL to operate alongside ISL poses a dual threat as it risks colonising minds and potentially leads to cultural erasure,” said Kumar.

The letter urged the CJI to protect the linguistic dignity and identity of over 1.8 crore deaf citizens of India by rejecting the PIL and directing the union government to uphold and strengthen ISL as the sole recognised sign language of India. It also prayed the CJI to ensure that all educational, legal, and accessibility measures for the deaf community are based exclusively on ISL.

NAD Also Opposes PIL

Similarly, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), an umbrella representative organisation of deaf persons across India, said that while it appreciated the intent to unlock global job potential through language learning, the petition is uninformed and unaware of the realities and aspirations of deaf persons in India. It said that any attempt to denigrate the importance that ISL plays, is a disservice to the deaf community of the country.

It added that ISL has been developed organically to meet the communication needs of millions of deaf Indians as it uses a two-hand system unlike ASL, which is based on American and French sign languages and uses a single-hand manual alphabet.

It also claimed that ASL is not suitable for Indian deaf people as it is culturally disconnective, which does not align with Indian societal contexts and would create communication barriers within the deaf community, especially among different generations.

Also Watch:

‘Strengthen ISL, Not Replace It’

A.S. Narayan, president of NAD, said, “In a country where limited resources means that not all options can be equally prioritised, introducing ASL alongside or in place of ISL undermines national linguistic sovereignty, disrupts community cohesion, and neglects the cultural and practical needs of deaf Indians. We call upon policymakers, educators, and stakeholders to support the development of ISL as a means to empower India’s deaf community sustainably and inclusively.”