Giving voice to the voiceless, DU’s CIC to sensitise people towards deaf-mute women
In an attempt to sensitise public servants towards deaf and dumb women, students of the Cluster Innovation Centre (CIC) of Delhi University — as a part of their semester project — will hold a workshop for doctors and nurses of Government hospitals on Friday. In the workshop, a group of students of BA Honours in Humanities and Social Service along with mentors will train doctors and nurses on how to deal with deaf and dumb patients.
Two semesters back, students of CIC began doing projects based on providing services to deaf and dumb women. One of their mentors on this project said that their first project was with the Delhi Police. “We conducted programmes with the police to sensitise them on issues regarding deaf and dumb women. We wanted them to address the problems of deaf and dumb women with patience and additionally be trained to do so,” said the mentor.
A student member of the project said, “We did a survey at that time and realised that there was no provision for deaf and dumb women. If something happened to them, or if they were harassed or attacked, they couldn’t even speak to the police to tell them their problems. Most of them don’t even have caretakers to interpret what they are saying and moreover some are abused by their caretakers only. So then with DCPs and ACPs of 11 districts we conducted a workshop and they all agreed that special training for police was needed.”
Thus, after the success of the police initiative, these students of CIC are now sensitising health caretakers.