Tuesday, May 10, 2011

SLI movement in Nepal

Background of NASLI-Nepal:

Nepal National Federation of the Deaf and Hard of hearing (NFDH) is umbrella organization of deaf people in Nepal. It is establish with the slogan deaf leadership for the development of deaf people. NFDH is leading the deaf movement in Nepal which according to the deaf experts and leader is in infancy stage. The role of Sign language interpreters is very crucial in this stage. As deaf people are minority linguistic group in the large hearing community the gap in communication factor affect very deeply in the deaf movement. The communication gap only could be filled up by sign language interpreters and only the interpreters could assure the full and effective participation and representation of the deaf people in family, community and other development activity. It is deaf people right to get qualified Sign language interpreters and there should be certain guidelines or code of conduct/ethics for Interpreters to act professionally.

Approximate figure indicates the deaf population in Nepal to be 200 thousand and among them 15,000apprx could communicate through sign language. The figure of SLI is showed to be around 50 which means the access of deaf people to SLI is 1:4000 (total deaf population) And 1:300 (deaf people with sign) in Nepal. Having saying this we also need to considered the qualification of SLI while delivering the service to deaf people. The access of deaf people to the SLI is still the priority and the service of SLI is also something to consider and work on. The SLI in Nepal obtain 4-10 month Sign language class and jump into the work. Lack of knowledge about the deaf people, deaf community, deaf culture and deaf physiology give them big challenges to stand on the job and result, many of them leave the job.

To develop the situation, NFDH has formed the Interpreter committee under it and this committee is focused on the SLI development in Nepal. Several training had been delivered to SLI to work effectively to deliver high level of Service to deaf people. 6 years back, a committee was formed to develop national Association of SLI. Although the committee came up with the constitution couldn't survive because of lack of confidence in this area.


On December 27th, A national level workshop of Sign Language Interpreters was organised by NFDH. The workshop was the platform for the Interpreters from all around Nepal to discuss on the various issues related with their day to day work and also became milestone by creating a Ad-hoc committee of the Sign Language Interpreter Association. The workshop provided opportunity to discuss on the relationship of Interpreters and Deaf people, Interpreters role etc. 
The Ad-hoc committee had the mandate to develop a draft constitution of the Sign Language Association to create legal ground. The committee of 9 members came up with the draft constitution and now the Association is registered in Chief District officer (CDO).