Madhya Pradesh to set up 10 industrial training institutes for hearing and speech-impaired, says CM

In what he declared to be the first such initiative in the country, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Sunday that the state will set up 10 industrial training institutes (ITIs) in sign language for the hearing- and speech-impaired, reports The Times Of India. Each school will have two teachers of sign language and the work will be completed within a year. [caption id=“attachment_2526660” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan poses for a photo with Geeta. PTI[/caption] Chouhan made the announcement at Indore during a function marking his 10th year in office. During the event, the chief minister met Geeta, the deaf and mute Indian girl who had been living in Pakistan ever since she was found by Pakistani Rangers at Lahore station around 15 years ago. She is now at a shelter home in Indore. “The (Madhya Pradesh) state government will take care of Geeta and special children like her,” said Chouhan, reports PTI. “The first decision of mine on entering the 11th year in office is in favour of speech- and hearing- impaired students. Such students who score at least 50 percent marks in class XII and want to do a Diploma in Education (DEd), or Bachelor in Education (BEd) will be given free of cost education for these courses,” he said. “I want these special students to become teachers,” he said, adding 1,000 such posts will be filled so that mute and deaf students get proper education. The state government will foot the bill of the expenditure to be borne by speech and hearing-impaired students who want to do IIT, IIM and medical courses after cracking entrance tests, he added. With inputs from PTI