When Heart Speaks in the Palpitated Rhythm of Silence....
Since 2018,23rd September has been observed as the international sign language day. The very purpose of this day is to aware the people about the importance of the sign language. The theme of the year 2024 is' Sign up for Sign Language Rights'. As on today there are near about 300 different sign languages are being used by people having speech & auditory impairments around the world. A total 73 million people of the world are still deprived of their normal communication skills. In India near about 63 Lakhs people are speech and hearing impaired. As the sign language plays a vital role to enable this section of people to communicate with rest of the world with the power of accessibility to education, economic affairs and all other requirements to sustain. Ironically out of the total auditory impaired population of India only 2 Percent are empowered or trained with this language, rest 98 percent are still in a state of incommunicative world.

To spread awareness about the importance of the day, the premier rehab organization of Kendrapara, PUNARBASA organised an Awareness cum Sensitization program in its therapy centre at Madhapur, Kendrapara.

At the outset, Member and Special School Principal Swapnashu Kumara Das put fourth his introductory speech. Thereafter, the Founder and Chief Adviser of the organisation Dr.Biraja Routray coordinate the program and apprised all about the significance of this day and its pivotal role in bridging the gap between the silent world with the mainstream communicative world.

On this occasion the Hon'ble Chairman of the District Child Welfare Committee Mrs Swagatika Patra joined as the Chief Guest, Mrs Jayanti Choudhary the wife of renounced national sports person Late Sukanta Choudhary (speech and hearing impaired) also present as the special guest during this occasion. Among the resource’s persons, Senior block resource teacher Sridhar Bhol, speech therapist Subhashree das, occupational therapist Gunjansmita Behera articulated their views and emphasized the role of sign language as an inevitable medium to connect with the first moving globe. Among others Physiotherapist Rachita Jena, ward councillor Mrs Rasmita singh, Former Headmaster and educationist Nursingha Tripathy, khirod Kar, S.K Samsuddin, Pradeep Kumar Mallick, Gautam Sahu and most specially Arjun charan Behera a young speech and hearing-impaired entrepreneur of kendrapara town expressed his unique experience and journey of life through the sign language.

As a token of gift, school carry bags were distributed among the ten numbers of speech and hearing students of Dadhibabamanajew special school of Kendrapara in the loving memory of late national sports person Sukant Choudhary. At last, the Assistant Secretary of the organisation Banshidhar Mohanty gave the vote of thanks to the guest and participants present in this program.