Ever since the United Nations declared 23rd September as the International Day of Sign Languages, the ISLRTC celebrates it every year on 23rd September. On the occasion, Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Pratima Bhoumik launched an app sign learn-  an Indian Sign Language (ISL) dictionary mobile application containing 10,000 words.

Sign Learn is based on the Indian sign language dictionary of the Indian Sign Language Research And Training Centre (ISLRTC) which contains 10,000 words. The app is available in Android as well as iOS versions. Officials said, “All the words in the ISL dictionary can be searched through Hindi or English medium. The sign videos of the app can also be shared on social media.

According to an official statement, “ISLRTC had signed an MoU with National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on 06th October 2020 for converting NCERT textbooks from Class I to XII into Indian Sign Language (digital format) to make the textbooks accessible to children with hearing disabilities. This year ISL e-content of NCERT textbooks of class VI was launched.

With the joint effort of ISLRTC and NCERT, a total of 500 academic words in Indian Sign Language were launched. These 500 academic words are words used at the secondary level, which are often used in history, science, political science, mathematics, officials added.

While sharing the video on Instagram, Ranveer Singh wrote “This is our first sign language video on @ntnmshra’s track ‘#Vartalap’ with the hope that the track will trigger more conversations related to making Indian Sign Language the 23rd official language of India. Do give it a listen and we hope you like it. Link in Bio. @incinkrecords Written & Performed by Spitfire: @ntnmshra Music Producers: @anushkadisco @manchandashikhar for @incinkrecords Signer: @hardeeply for @acciomango Art: IncInk Art Studio @mihir.sud @avndsouza.”

Titled pathshala, episode 1, vartalap video shows a man in black and white performing sign language on the music running in the background. The lyrics for the song are ““Hai janam ye bas ek hi Din ye kam karam anek hai Nigaah to mili hai sab ko hi Par ye mann se na hai dekhte” – Vartalap by Spitfire

The description on the video says “Using our platform and the voice IncInk offers us, we want to take this opportunity to open up a conversation with the 10 million+ Deaf people in India through our first music video translated in ISL (Indian Sign Language) produced in collaboration with AccioMango Pvt. Ltd. For this video, Dr. Alim Chandani (founder of AccioMango) appointed Deaf signer Hardeep Singh who studied Spitfire’s lyrics for days to translate it in ISL.