R-Day: Activists demand sign language version in DD National

Hundreds of activists and differently-abled people today held a protest demanding simultaneous sign language interpretation of Republic Day telecast on all prominent channels of Doordarshan including DD National.
Heeding to the long standing demand of disabled rights groups, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had earlier agreed to introduce sign language interpretation for hearing impaired people on DD Bharti, DD News and DD Urdu.
But activists rejected the government's decision and sought sign language interpretation of the telecast on all major channels of Doordarshan, particularly on DD National.
"Our demand for sign language interpretation is realistic and non-negotiable. We want accessible telecast of Republic Day parade on all six channels of public broadcaster Doordarshan, especially DD National," said Javed Abidi, convener, Disabled Rights Group.

National Association of the Deaf, a representative organisation of deaf and hard of hearing people in India, said more than 18 million people will benefit from sign language interpretation.
"We do not want tokenism. It's a matter of our fundamental right. Why not have sign language interpretation on DD National too? It provides feed to the many private channels," Abidi said.

Earlier this month, the group had met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Selja Kumari and Defence Minister A K Antony seeking their intervention.
"If the telecast on DD National is not made available in an accessible format, it would mean that Ministry of I&B and Doordarshan are spreading the message of discrimination by consciously choosing to not make their telecast accessible on all their channels," Abidi said.

Scores of activists from Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan gathered outside Shastri Bhavan, which houses various central government ministries, to press for their demand.