Lok Sabha Question No. 175 (STARRED), answered on 2021-07-30
Subject: News in Sign Language
Ministry: INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING
Asked by: Achyutananda Samanta

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *175 (TO BE ANSWERED ON 30.07.2021)

## NEWS IN SIGN LANGUAGE

## *175 SHRI ACHYUTANANDA SAMANTA:

## Will the Minister of INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has issued accessibility guidelines for private TV channels to broadcast news at least once a day in sign language and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) whether the Government has specified any monitoring mechanism to ensure the implementation of these guidelines by private TV channels and if so, the details thereof; and
- (c) the  steps  taken/proposed  to  be  taken  by  the  Government  to  ensure that information on important issues/official press conferences particularly on COVID19  developments  are  accessible  to  people  with  hearing  and  other disabilities through sign language?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING; AND MINISTER OF YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS (SHRI ANURAG SINGH THAKUR)

- (a) to (c) : A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (c) OF THE LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. *175 FOR ANSWER ON 30.07.2021

(a):  Yes Sir. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has formulated and issued 'Accessibility Standards for Television Programmes for Hearing Impaired' on 11.09.2019 to facilitate accessibility to TV programmes and News for persons with hearing impairment.

The formulated standards, inter-alia, contain provisions to make the TV content, including  news  programmes,  accessible  by  use  of  closed  captioning,  sign language interpretation and subtitling in a phased manner with graded targets. In respect of the accessible news, the formulated standards prescribe that the private  News broadcasters may start with daily sign language news bulletins, effective  16.09.2019,  with  facilitation  from  Doordarshan which  may  provide  its sign  language  news  bulletin  free  of  cost  to  the  private  news  broadcasters  till 31.12.2020,  during  which  time  private  news  broadcasters  may  develop  their capacity  to  produce  their  sign  language  news  bulletins.  Keeping  in  view  the unprecedented COVID situation, Doordarshan has agreed to extend the sharing of  the  feed  till  31.12.2021  to  give  more  time  to  the  private  broadcasters  for making in-house arrangements.

(b): Yes Sir. The implementation of the accessibility standards by the private TV channels is being monitored by the Ministry and monthly reports are generated. The  reports  are  also  being  updated  in  the  MIS  portal  developed  by  the Department  of  Empowerment  of  Persons  with  Disabilities  (DEPwD)  for  the purpose.

(c):  Ministry  of  Information  and  Broadcasting  disseminates  information  on Governance policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements through various  media  units  like  Press  Information  Bureau  (PIB),  Bureau  of  Outreach and Communication (BOC) and Prasar Bharati, the public broadcaster, through Doordarshan  and  All  India  Radio,  utilizing  various  media  vehicles  like  print, electronic  media,  social  media,  internet  websites,  outdoor  publicity,  live  arts and  interpersonal  media. The  above-said  accessibility  standards  contain provisions  for  dissemination  of  information  related  to  emergency  services, public  communications,  public  service  messages,  announcements  etc.  It  is inter-alia prescribed that for the hearing impaired people, emergency information must be provided in formats accessible to such persons, namely open captioning/ subtitling/ Sign language interpretation in appropriate forms of communication to leverage mainstream communication channels.

- *****