The World Around Us

Deaf Way Foundation

The Deaf Way Foundation is committed to educate, empower and advocate for the deaf community of India by providing quality services in an inclusive and enabling environment. It is estimated that there are between 6 and 15 million deaf people living in India.

In 1986, Mr. Arun C. Rao had his first child, a daughter, who was deaf. Appalled by the lack of services available to those with special needs he campaigned fiercely, eventually founding The Deaf Way Foundation and creating a monthly publication of the same name in 1996.

Now, Deaf Way touches thousands of lives across India with:

  • 19 National-level Conferences
  • 60 leadership training camps
  • 60 HIV/AIDS awareness workshops
  • 2500 deaf people as active members
  • 180 cultural programs in schools
  • 65 dance drama quiz painting competitions for deaf children.

With their office located in the bustling Nehru Place of New Delhi, Deaf Way is a hive of largely quiet activity. While Deaf Way’s role is to educate and empower deaf Indians through their educational and instructional programs, it is part of a larger network that addresses the plight of disabled persons in the world’s largest democracy .

Closely affiliated with Deaf Way is the Association of Sign Language Interpreters (ASLI) . As of 2008, there was exactly one official sign language interpreter in all of India: who worked for the government in a select number of occasions. Their aim is to provide the deaf community of India with quality interpreting services, empowering them to live fuller better lives, while providing our members with quality training and opportunities for growth in their profession.

National Association of the Deaf (NAD)
“Let us know our right, come together, and claim them”.

NAD is a new organization, just having been recently formed in December 2005. It is a grass roots organization and purports to be one that is truly representative of deaf people across India: one that is of the deaf, for the deaf and by the deaf. NAD lobbies and advocates the government in the interest of the rights of deaf Indians.

Disabled Rights Group (DRG)

DRG campaigns with organizations such NCPEDP , to lobby the government in the interest of all disabled Indians.