On the occasion of World Deaf Day (27^th of September, just in case you were wondering), team JWB has come up with a campaign to bring forth dreams of the hearing impaired. With an aim to raise awareness and create compassion in your heart, here’s presenting, Deaf Dreams.

There is a certain indescribable feel in interviewing someone whom you have known forever, working for a wonderful cause, which is also under our spotlight this week. I realized this when I went to interview my neighbour, Mrs. Rita Piplani, the director of Asha Kiran Speech and Language Habilitation Center.

What initiated as a school for hearing and speech impaired, has now turned into a center where the problem is uprooted with a swish of the astonishingly magical technology.

JWB: Such humanitarian deeds are always a result of some major inspiration. What persuaded you to take up this cause?

Rita Piplani: In my post-grad years, I once came across a very young girl with a strange machine attached to her ear. Curious, I went to inquire about it. Her mother told me that it was a hearing aid. I had never seen it before. Feeling that mother’s pain, I decided to do something to help such kids. Inspiration comes to you in the strangest of the forms, right?

With Master’s degree in English, it so wasn’t happening. So I did all the research I could; flew off to Mumbai to undertake a special training in this subject and returned determined to make the lives of these kids as easy as I can.

JWB: And how did your institute come into being?

Rita Piplani: ‘Asha Kiran’ was initiated about 25 years ago, as a school which catered for the children with special needs. Eventually, we found out that parents weren’t too comfortable with the idea of sending their kids to a ‘special school’ as we call it. They desired normalcy for their children. And well, who wouldn’t? That is when we converted it to a speech and language habilitation centre, where we worked upon their speech and hearing, and prepped those kids up to attend normal schools.

JWB: Sounds like a task! How did you do that?

Rita Piplani: Well, it’s a long procedure. In the old days, technology obviously wasn’t as good as it is now. In Jaipur, there was no way one could detect deafness in a child until he/she turned at least 1. After that, those children were examined and we detected the amount of loss they suffered from. They were given hearing aids to wear. But, just putting a hearing aid on doesn’t bring the problem to an end. The children still had no language which they understood. Speaking one, a far cry. They had to be given speech therapies too.

JWB: What has changed since then?

Rita Piplani: Now, we have various tests which help in early detection of deafness in infants. Most of the paediatricians still don’t know about them, so they don’t recommend them to new parents, but gradually, they are catching up.

Anyway, if the loss is greater than 100 decibels, a surgery is performed and the cochlear device is implanted into the baby’s ear. After that, the baby is able to hear like a normal human being. Those babies seldom face problems in speech because they already have a grip on the language.

JWB: So you’re telling us that they can attend normal schools after that?

Rita Piplani: Yeah! Once they bid goodbye to their impairment, they can easily attend those schools.

JWB: Tell us about the therapy sessions.

Well, you can imagine how difficult it is to communicate without knowing the language. A child starts recognizing and learning the language his/her parents speak in infancy. However, a child who can’t hear has to learn it after receiving the implants. For those kids, we have language interventions and speech therapies. It is actually more important for us to train the parents, since they are the ones responsible for aftercare and everything else that follows.

JWB: How does their impairment affect them psychologically?

Rita Piplani: Though not intentionally, but they are made to feel like outcasts…like they don’t belong. Using the phones, participating in group discussions, watching movies – and all such ordinary things for us are no less than a fantasy to them. Plus, the hearing aids make them conscious of their appearance. A while ago, I was visited by a 5 year old who wanted to get rid of his hearing aid. He had flooded his parents with questions about why he has to wear it all the time and his classmates don’t. Answering such questions is psychologically scarring for the parents as well. One must treat such kids with a lot of love and patience.

JWB: Does the disability come on the way of their ambitions?

Rita Piplani: Apoorva, you really need to see some of my kids! They are so brilliant. You won’t even realize that they’re differently-abled. There is this girl whom I’ve been treating for a while now. Once, while indulging in a casual chit-chat session, she told me about how she dealt with a tough situation. She used to be an introvert who didn’t interact much with her classmates because she felt inferior. Her classmates too made no efforts to make her feel comfortable. To cover that, she started studying like crazy – and topped the class. That is when her classmates accepted her and started treating her like one of them. Earlier, nobody used to talk to her and later on, they used to approach her seeking help with their studies.

JWB: What is life like for the ones who can’t hear at all, after they graduate from their schools?

Rita Piplani: It depends upon the choices they make. Some of them choose to go to a college, while the others find vocational jobs for themselves. Exclusively, we don’t have many colleges for the hearing impaired, because there aren’t many teachers who can communicate using the sign language. Some of the regular colleges do enroll them if they don’t suffer from a major hearing loss, and can hear properly using the hearing aids. 

In the government sector, there are a few jobs reserved for the impaired. The private sector usually doesn’t care. It employs solely on the basis of the person’s ability.

Didn’t this article make you feel the need to open your eyes and ears to the world you live in? The thought provoking conversation I had with her surely made me feel that way. Most of us, who aren’t living with someone differently-abled, are blind and deaf to the things they go through. My true being has taken over and is prompting me to be an aware human who does her part in making the life of such people better. Just gotta figure out a way.

Catch y’all later co-humans! If someone dear to you has a similar story to tell, or the article just ignited your curiosity, write down to us at contactjaipurwomenblog@gmail.com.