Hearing impaired - no hindrance to secure jobs

When we visited the house of 47-year-old Edward Premalal, who is deaf from birth, he was reluctant to reveal anything about his life, but his wife, 39-year-old Premila who is partially deaf due to an accident, told us their life story.

Both Edward and Premila are living at Meddawatta, Kalutara. Their marriage took place 15 years ago. They have two children, the elder, a son is also dumb, but the younger one, a daughter was born without any disabilities. The son receives his education in a deaf school at Moratuwa, while the daughter, nine-year-old Samanmali is studying in a leading school at Mt. Lavinia. She is in the school hostel.

When the Sunday Observer informed Edward and Premila through a sign language interpretor about our visit to his place, the couple was anxiously awaiting to see us with their daughter. Although the daughter could speak well, she had also learned the sign language system and it immensely helped us to speak with Edward and his wife.

Samanmali said she learned the sign language system to help her parents and the brother who are dumb. Our questions to Edward and Premila were interpreted by Samanmali through the sign language.

Differently abled at work

Differently abled students at work

Edward had met Premila at a function organised by the Kalutara District Deaf Members' Association 15 years ago. It was a proposed marriage. Both of them exchanged the family details through the sign language generally used by deaf people.

Edward's profession is repairing cycles. He earns about Rs. 800 a day, while Premila is sewing school uniforms. Although, Edward and Premila are leading a happy life, they say majority deaf people in the country are poor. Many of them neither have permanent houses nor permanent jobs.

He said there are over 300,000 deaf people in the country and requested the Social Service Department to help them through area Divisional Secretariats.

Unlike blind people, deaf people could be engaged in various employment opportunities such as repairing three-wheelers, cycles, vehicle paintings, welding, bakery work, poultry farms, cleaning, printing, garden and garbage cleaning.

According to the Social Service Department, a large section of deaf people in the country have been given employment in State departments, printing institutions, cycle repairing shops, photo shops, mercantile banks and hospitals.

He thanked the Government for imposing a rule to recruit at least three percent blind, deaf and dumb people to state and private sector institutions.

Our short visit to Wadduwa in the Kalutara District was unforgettable due to our meeting with a deaf family of five members. The parents Gunasiri, Kumudini and two daughters are deaf. The youngest daughter Nilamani who is partially deaf is presently living in Germany with a Swedish family. The family had no children and adopts the girl.

"The Swedesh family who had a deaf child visited Sri Lanka 15 years ago. They had come to Sri Lanka with the intention of adopting a baby girl. As the couple's only child had died due to an illness they had adopted Nilamani from Sri Lanka".

The foreign couple had obtained Nilamani's whereabouts from a social service organisation and took the legal ownership from the Department of Child Care and Probation."

According to a villager in the area, the story of this family was in a foreign journal and it helped them find the girl. Gunasiri is working as a barber in a saloon and Kumudini is employed in a photograph shop.

The Sunday Observer also spoke to the Sri Lanka Central Federation of the Deaf (SLCFD) at Kapuwatta, Ja-Ela to ask how the federation helps the deaf community in the country.

A senior federation official and a Sign Language Instructor Bernardine de Croos said the SLCFD is rendering a yeoman service to uplift the living standard of both young and elderly deaf people.

The Federation will hold the annual International Deaf Day on September 23 at the John de Silva Theatre, Colombo with the participation of over 1,500 deaf children from all parts of the country.

An exhibition of handicrafts, produced by deaf children and deaf elderly people will also be held on this day. An entertainment, presented by deaf children will also be held.

Deaf people are generally dumb. Some people who are partially deaf could speak fluently. A senior medical officer, attached to the Colombo National Hospital said people who are deaf by birth are generally dumb, but those who become deaf after the birth due to accidents or any other illnesses the ability of speaking gradually fade away. Young Samansiri Peris of Payagala who was a guitarist in a leading Western band had become deaf at the age of 24. Samansiri had met with an accident after coming home from a party. He was affected in a bomb explosion and as a result he lost both his ear drums. Although Samansiri could speak; his voice is not clear as earlier. He too uses the sign language.

According to an official of a deaf school at Ja-Ela, there are 25 deaf schools in the country.

He says the Government should institute a separate body to look into the needs of the deaf community in the country.

A carpenter by profession, 56-year-old Gunapala Gamlath who was blind and deaf by birth told us a very interesting, but very pathetic story. He told the story through a sign language interpreter.

Gunapala was the eldest of a family of six. There were no deaf members in the family except Gunapala. "My father was a farmer, and before I was born when my mother was helping him in the paddy field she was stung by a snake. The tragedy occurred a few days before the confinement. She had taken native treatment and was cured, but I was born deaf and blind,".

A deaf worker, 35-year-old, Sunil Madawa of Kelaniya, through a sign language interpreter said there are a number of deaf children in the country and they are leading very pathetic lives.

He proposed the Social Service Department to take an islandwide census of deaf and blind people and helped them to at least construct houses.

He said although there is a Government rule to provide three percent employment for deaf and blind people in the state and the mercantile sector only few institutions follow this rule.

He requested the Government to increase this percentage up to ten percent and urged institutions to provide jobs to both deaf and blind people in the country.

-AK