When it comes to differently abled people, our country still lacks in providing proper infrastructure to make their lives comfortable and hassle-free. AT every turn of their daily affairs, they end up facing various hardships. For the people with hearing-impairment or speech disability, even establishing a basic communication is a challenge. Most of our public offices are not differently-able friendly and the staffs there hardly know sign-language.
Indore police, however, has taken this issue very seriously. On the directions of Hari Narayan Chari Mishra, who is IG, Indore Zone, Madhya Pradesh, the police personnel have started learning Indian Sign Language (ISL). Not only this, the 2003 batch officer is working to start a booth in each district to help deaf-mute people in lodging complaints.
During a conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Mishra spoke about his initiative and what he plans to enhance the scope of this mission in the near future.
TRAINING THE POLICE STAFFS
There are eight districts falling under the Indore zone. These include Alirajpur, Barwani, Burhanpur, Dhar, Jhabua, Khandwa and Khargone. As the IG, Mr. Mishra is responsible for the law & order in these places. The officer is also an advocate for encouraging community policing and ensuring sensitisation of police towards every individual. “Like everybody else, people who are not able to speak or hear are entitled to justice and rights. However, they have to face many kinds of misbehaviour & harassment when they come to police for help. For one, they are not able to present their problems, which often leave them helpless. This communication barrier sometimes also ends in the frustration of police officials dealing with such cases. To avoid this scenario, only two things are required. First, the police staffs are able to communicate with them and for that they must learn the Indian Sign Language (ISL) . Secondly, the police should be sensitive towards differently-able persons”, said the IG.
ROPING IN SIGN LANGUAGE EXPERTS
Under Mr Mishra’s initiative, the police personnel from all the eight districts are learning the sign-language in Indore. Sign language experts, Gyanendra Purohit and Monica Purohit are not only teaching them the language of signs and expressions but also showing presentation on the importance of providing justice to people with hearing-impairment and speech disability.
Mr. Mishra believes that after the training, the police will be able to know these peoples’ problem and take immediate action. He also mentioned that every district has some people with such issue, so in each district one police station will be converted into a booth, with officials well-versed in sign language, to help the complainants..
In Indore, Tukoganj police station has already been turned into the booth while in Burhanpur Lal Bagh police station will act like the booth. Similary, all the districts will have one station for helping the people with speech and hearing disability
Mr. Mishra hoped that in the next 15 to20 days, all the districts under his zone will have such facility. He also emphasized that this should be taken up at state and central level because it’s the duty of government and police to resolve the complaints and help every single person in the country. Under the Initiative of 2003-batch IPS officer Hari Narayan Chari Mishra, the police personnel of Indore Zone are learning sign-language to deal effectively, and more humanely, with differently abled persons.
