Mumbai, March 22: The Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) have developed the country’s first unique dictionary, aiming to bring uniformity in sign languages employed by hearing and speech impaired people. The first-of-its-kind dictionary, Indian Sign Language (ISL) dictionary, was released on Friday for the benefit for the impaired people across the nation.

Talking at the ISL dictionary’s release, Social Justice & Empowerment Minister Thaawarchand Gehlot said, “The basic aim of developing the ISL Dictionary is to remove communication barriers between the deaf and hearing impaired communities as it is focused on providing more information in Indian sign language.”

Dr. Thawarchand Gehlot at the launch of India's first sign language dictionary:

The dictionary is loaded with 3,000 Hindi and English words, along with their pictorial representations of the signs which they usually use in their daily life. Also, the dictionary will also comprise of some regional variations as added benefits for the users.

Other words will be added soon in the dictionary and he hoped that the dictionary wide-spreads and people reap its benefits. As per the 2011 population census, there were 50,71,007 and 19,98,535 people with deaf and speech disability in India respectively.

First Sign Language Dictionary Launched in India:

The ISL dictionary is divided into five categories – Everyday, Legal, Academic, Medical, and Technical. The Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre had been working for a period of more than one year over this ambitious project. The ISL dictionary will be available in both, video and print format. One can download the dictionary from the ministry’s website or directly from ISLRTC too.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 23, 2018 05:45 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).