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“My English has always been good. In my spare time I try to improve it even further”

During a session at the tenth anniversary of the Able Summit in Jaipur last week, the audience learnt a few Signs from a young woman. Communicating via Dr Aditi Mishra, a ‘hearing’ educator, she taught people how to convey, in Indian Sign Language (ISL), phrases such as “I need help”, “I will help you”, “Thank you”, “I’m sorry” and “I love you”.
 
It was the first time Simran Kumari (22) from Ghaziabad had taken the stage to face a large crowd. Classrooms are her familiar spaces. She has worked for the past two years as a Deaf educator in the Sai Swayam Society (SSS) School for the Deaf in Delhi, imparting the sort of education she herself never received studying in a mainstream school in Ghaziabad.
 
Simran was born with deafness as the eldest child of two Deaf parents – Pradeep Kumar (36) who works in a candy-manufacturing company and his wife Geeta Devi (39), a homemaker. Pradeep and Geeta both studied in the same Deaf school; he finished his intermediate while she passed Class 8. They have two other children, both hearing: Harshita (19) doing B.Sc and Naitik (13) in Class 10.
 
“Everyone at home signs,” Simran told us through an interpreter. “We developed our own sign language to communicate with each other.” It was only years later that she learnt ISL. She studied in the Hindi medium section of a mainstream private school – Santosh Shiksha Niketan Junior High School, Ghaziabad. Her parents and Pradeep’s sister helped her study; later, Harshita too joined the same school, though in the English medium; she would borrow Simran’s classmates’ notes and interpret them for her. Simran did well in English and Math and secured 71 per cent in Class 10. She believes she might have done better if she had joined the English medium, which the principal disallowed. “Hindi is difficult to learn for deaf people,” said Simran. “That is why I could not do well in Hindi as well as other subjects like social studies and science.”
 
Simran remembers that in Class 3 she tried showing her classmates how to sign some basic words but they were not interested. The sole friend she had was targeted by other kids who asked her, “Why are you friends with that deaf girl?” But Simran persisted, and by Class 5 she had four friends whom she taught the Sign alphabet and simple words like hello, water, happy, and eating. Seeing them sign, other children too got involved. Sometimes in class everyone would start interpreting for her and the teacher, annoyed by this interruption, would stop them.
 
After Class 10 she moved to Saraswati Shiksha Niketan Inter College in Ghaziabad where she took home science and arts. She managed to get 63 per cent in Class 12 and finally learnt ISL at the Noida Deaf Society (NDS), an NGO that provided eight months of training, which covered computers, English and personal development. “I learnt a lot in NDS,” she says. “I was able to express myself. I felt I belonged.”
 
Before she could complete her NDS training, however, her uncle urged her to write the entrance exam to join the ISL Research and Training Centre. Qualifying for the Diploma in Teaching ISL course was a big achievement and the family was on cloud nine. Her fellow students were from different parts of the country such as Manipur, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, and she discovered that each state or language had its own signs. She was thrown off balance at first but a friend, Preeti, encouraged her to stay on. “They also teach deaf culture, identity and history,” she recounts. She made slow progress and by the second year had gained enough confidence to prepare lectures herself. She completed the course in 2024 and her job hunt ended in just three months when she secured the teaching position at SSS. Simran began teaching only Nursery and Kindergarten but Meera Chetan Bhatia, the CEO of SSS, encouraged her to handle the higher classes. Now she teaches all subjects for Classes 5 and 6 and English for Classes 11 and 12, using visual aids confidently.
 
Simran commutes independently; the mobile phone has been a major aid. When asked what she likes to do in her free time, she said “I’m always trying to improve my English.” But there are other sides to her, she revealed. Geeta Devi, a silver-medal-winner in Deaf Chess, taught her the game, and now she too has bagged silver in Deaf Chess just like her mother! Oh, she has done modelling too!
 
Simran is now preparing for the government Staff Selection Commission (SSC) exams. “I like to explore new avenues always,” she says.