Sachin Singh

Sachin is an enigmatic, industrious and accomplished youth leader. He works as an Instructor, Sign Linguistics at Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center, New Delhi. He is an international deaf youth representative at Disabled People International (DPI), and is also actively involved in various research projects.

Sachin was born deaf. He spent most of his life in Lucknow, U.P.  His mother and elder sister are deaf, along with many other relatives from his maternal side like his uncle, aunt and many others. However, none of them knew sign language. They have been managing with gestures and limited speech, which is what Sachin received as his first language input. Despite having so many deaf members in his family, he never received the Sign Language support that was needed.

He studied in a mainstream school. He was the only deaf student there. He understood absolutely nothing in his classroom. Year after year, teachers came and delivered lesson after lesson - English, Hindi, Science, History etc. But nothing was accessible to Sachin. There was no communication, no learning, no growth - just a routine stagnancy for many years. He managed to pass by simply copy-pasting without ever understanding what those words meant.
He remembers those painful years : "There was zero social interaction. I was totally isolated. I had a hearing aid, but no real hearing. When I reached 7th standard, my teachers got suspicious. I faked that I could hear, and replied in gestures. I broke down in tears many times. My teachers tried to counsel me, but they couldn't really help me."
He changed to a different school in his senior secondary years. There was no sports, no activities - only academics. He struggled and literally studied day and night, without any social development. While his hearing peers, who were enjoying, going for movies, meeting at malls - still got higher marks than him. His father encouraged him to try more, study more. He did try, but it just didn't feel right. And slowly his focus moved to sports.

He joined the B.Com course in Lucknow University, and somehow managed the first two years. But in the third, he started to feel restless. He began to hate the same old helplessness of being the only deaf in a hearing classroom, the same inaccessible lectures and the same meaningless copy-paste technique of passing in exams. And he decided to quit in third year.
He mentions : "I don't have anything against the hearing society, but the language and communication barrier makes it difficult for us to interact. I was always left out in the conversations. I could barely manage to understand one-to-one, I was totally lost in group conversations. While the hearing people had instant access to all the college news, I had to wait for the teachers, who didn't quite like putting in the extra effort to explain it to me. And what I usually got was a really short and distorted version of the news. My college experience was really terrible. "

Meanwhile, his interest in sports took over. He had always been a good athlete, excelling in all sports. He began to participate in Weightlifting Championships, and other athletic competitions. He started devoting his full time and energy to sports, it was a much preferable option compared to the dull and meaningless classrooms. Sports helped  him by instilling a sense of self-esteem, confidence and positive attitude. But he was still the only deaf person and all the other ones were hearing, communication and the prospects of development seemed limited. He was training at a private sports center, near Noida. And during one of the bus journeys through Delhi, he got to know about a sign language course at Delhi University (DU).

He joined this Sign Language Course at DU. It was there that he met deaf teachers for the first time in his life and got introduced to the thriving, stimulating world of sign language communication. He applied for a course called - BA (HONS) in Applied Sign Language Studies – BAASLS run by University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom (UCLan) and Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi. The four year long course enabled him to meet so many empowered deaf adults, appreciate the beauty of sign language, enjoy barrier free learning, acquire full confidence, positive attitude, be part of the deaf community.  He was truly inspired and became involved with several deaf associations.
It was during his course that met his soul-mate - Amy, a girl from Nagaland who was born hearing but became deaf later in life. They had many common experiences of being the only deaf in a hearing set-up. They instantly connected, fell in love, and later got married.

He got a job at the Centre for Indian Sign Language and Deaf Studies, Dr. Shakuntala Mishra Rehabilitation University (DSMRU), Lucknow as an instructor to teach a preparatory course (equivalent to class 11th and 12th) to the deaf students. In 2016, he was appointed as the Instructor (Sign Linguistics) at Indian Sign Language Research and Training Center, ISLRTC, New Delhi. He loves teaching, and believes that it has enriched his life. He has been conducting research on many topics related to deaf, and delivering lectures in various conference and workshops.

When he looks back at his life, the 'before' and 'after' episodes are drastically different.
He exclaims : "Sign Language has been the turning point of my life. I spent a major part of my life feeling isolated and limited by barriers. I was all on my own, throughout my school and college life. Getting even the smallest of the information was an ordeal. Sign language introduced me to a world full of possibilities and connected me an ever-supportive Deaf Community."

Sachin is enthusiastic about the future of Sign Language and Deaf Community in India. Many new projects have been initiated for the deaf, supported by various universities and the government. Establishment of ISLRTC has been an important development. It has been a slow but steady process. He sincerely wishes that in next 10 years, we have more courses for the deaf, more interpreters, better interpreting service, better quality of teaching in deaf schools, and early intervention in terms of sign language input. He envisions a splendid future for the deaf in India.