Union Education Minister Addresses on Sign Language Day Education Ministry Launches Buildathon 2025

Union Education Minister Addresses on Sign Language Day Education Ministry Launches Buildathon 2025

Last Updated Sep - 24 - 2025, 10:34 AM | Source : PIB | Visitors : 2

Coverage of ISL recognition and the launch of Viksit Bharat Buildathon to spur innovation nationwide.

On the International Day of Sign Languages 2025, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan have addressed the nation via PM eVidya ISL Channel 31, declaring Indian Sign Language (ISL) as a beacon of inclusion, identity, and empowerment. He underscored how education are a right for every child (“Shiksha Sabka Adhikar Hai”), and emphasized that for children who are deaf or hard of hearing, their natural language is ISL.

He linked this vision to the National Education Policy 2020, which support learning in the child’s most natural language. Pradhan referenced Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to leaving “no one behind” in India’s march toward “Samridh Bharat 2047,” and argued that recognizing ISL is expressing that principle very elegantly.

The minister highlighted concrete progress: PM eVidya ISL Channel 31, launched in December 2024, now broadcast six hour daily, reaches about 10,000 subscribers and 85,000 viewers, and carries NCERT lessons in ISL. NCERT textbooks for classes 1 to 5 has been made available in video ISL formats via DIKSHA with QR codes, with work underway for classes up to 12.

Further, the Indian Sign Language dictionary have grew to over 10,000 words, the digital repository includes hundreds of academic videos and over 2,200 glossary videos across various subjects, and more than 1,000 instructional ISL videos are available to support learning. The minister also mentioned PRASHAST, an app used for early disability screening (92 lakh students screened so far), and initiatives like the Basic ISL course (with over 21,000 participants) and programs for deaf-blind awareness.

He invoked role models such as Sarah Sunny (India’s first deaf advocate in the Supreme Court) and G. Suresh (a deaf table tennis champion), to illustrate that when systems supports talent, excellence follows. He concluded by urging that ISL be present in every school, college, and workplace as both a cultural treasure and a tool of inclusion, reinforcing India’s commitment for an inclusive, future-ready society.

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