Today is 27th September 2019 and the 5th day of the International Week of the Deaf.
Today’s theme is ‘Sign Language Rights For Deaf Women.'
A big hello to all the Deaf women!
According to WFD, around the world the number of women is a lot more than men.
Similarly, the number of Deaf women is also more than Deaf men.
Article 6 of the UN’s CRPD says that,
around the world Hearing women, Deaf women as well women with disabilities face a lot of discrimination and opression.
In India, women face a lot of oppression. Men and women are never given equal treatment.
In India Deaf women face many problems.
Deaf women face many problems. For example, there is a severe shortage of education.
This makes it difficult to find jobs.
Women face many problems in life.
Women find it very difficult to find jobs.
Even if they do find jobs, there is no accessibility and communication barriers are making the job even more difficult.
The Indian Constitution has many laws that safeguard the rights of women in India.
However, these laws are completely inaccessible to Deaf Indian women.
If a Hearing women is travelling in an auto and something bad happens,
she can immediately call the police and communicate.
 However, a Deaf women cannot communicate with the police, because there is no accessibility.
These laws should be completely accessible. For example,
the laws are written in English, which Deaf people are unable to understand. These must be transalated in Sign Language or Interpreters must be provided.
However there is no accessibility.
In any situation, Deaf individuals can use these laws to protect themselves. However they are not aware about these laws.
Deaf individuals are completely unaware about the laws.
Healthcare awareness regarding pregnancy, menopause, menstruation,
personal hygiene tips such as not wearing the same undergarments for long time, etc.
are accessible to the hearing. Not wearing undergarments for a long time, intricasies about pregnancy, menustration, etc. are all easily accessible to the hearing.
But inaccessible to Deaf women.
For example, in villages when women suffer from breast cancer they feel ashamed to seek treatment from male doctors.
They decide to keep it a secret.
Hearing individuals have access to seminars that educate them about seeking treatment.
They then go to the doctors.
But the Deaf are not given accessibility through sign language. So they suffer many problems.
Indian government has laws that ensure equality of gender.
Deaf women must be given equal treatment.
In India, there are many Deaf women associations that work for the development of Deaf women.
We must all support them and make sure the women get their Human rights.
