Students at Ruma Roka’s school Noida Deaf Society wear a t-shirt proudly proclaiming Deaf But Not Dumb. And this Ruma has proved to the world, for thousands of her students from all over India are well-placed in jobs in different sectors

I had been invited by Aseem Kumar and his wife, Tulika, leather garment exporters and owners of Kaurub Exports Limited in Noida to witness a different sort of cricket match. The couple had organized a match between their employees and the Noida Deaf Society. On the company’s team were several employees who were deaf. They at one time had been students at the Noida Deaf Society, under the tutelage of their enterprising principal, Ruma Roka.

Cheering along the team were several enthusiastic students still studying at the school that Ruma Roka so successfully runs. Intrigued, I found out more about her.

Ruma Roka

I discovered that some people were not born to sit idle and Ruma Roka was one such person. Back in 2004, she was at home, a regular homemaker, watching the news on TV, on an ordinary day. She saw a woman interpreting the news in sign language on a Doordarshan channel. She was curious to learn more and set off to find out more about such people. Soon, it became a mission and she herself began learning sign language.

The next logical step for her was to get in touch with people and also children whom she could help. She began to understand the limitations they wanted to overcome and deeply felt the pain and rejection that the deaf suffered at the hands of society―even among their own families. Such children could not attend regular school and their education suffered. Even later in life, they had limited career opportunities as people were unwilling to employ anyone with even the slightest handicap.

As she began meeting these deaf people from all walks of life, she also began volunteering for the deaf in hospitals and in schools, and wherever else she could help them. She realised that they had the same needs as anybody else and needed help to interact with officials in government offices and in the regular market. She realised that the deaf community even in Indian cities, leave alone villages, had been sidelined for years from both education and employment opportunities.

She had found her calling―and she decided that henceforth, helping the deaf would be her mission in life. Ruma Roka began small and established the Noida Deaf Society from a modest apartment with three rooms. She began with teaching five students, the basics of English comprehension. Now, students from all over North India flock to her school. She has students from UP, Bihar, Punjab, Rajasthan, Orissa, Jammu, Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal.

The organisation’s core objectives are to develop specialised vocational training courses, build employability, create deaf trainers and interpreters for the Deaf community, and sensitise and train teachers so that children are taught efficiently.

She began to interact with big employers to create local livelihood opportunities for her students and she partnered with employers in almost all sectors from manufacturing, exports, IT, as well as multinationals.

The cricket team with Aseem Kumar (in white)

At one such meeting with industry professionals, she met the Kumars of Kaurub Exports. Soon, the company’s managing director, Aseem Kumar had an idea, one that he quickly put into action.

At the cricket match meeting, Aseem Kumar had spoken to the audience about it. He said, “I began thinking of the power of silence and decided that I could introduce this into my company”. The Noida Deaf Society already had trained people who lived in this silent world in computers and communications; so he began employing the handicapped in his factory. The Kumars soon realised that once trained, they were as productive as the other employees. “They might have invisible disability and can’t hear or speak, but such people are gifted by the power of observation,” Kumar discovered.

“The other employees, some of whom had been with me for 25 years, saw their quality of work. We communicate with them in sign language and we respect their work. It is like a sort of reverse mentoring for us,” he said.

It only goes to show that everyone has a role to play in society, including people with disabilities. God has made everyone intelligent and to make up for their loss of hearing, has endowed them with other special skills.  

For her pioneering work, Ruma has won several awards including the Amazing Indian Award given by no less than the PM of the country. She has also been honoured with the 100 Women Achievers Award by the President.

Ruma is on the advisory board of several organizations and is a member of the general council of the newly setup, Sector Skills Council for Persons with Disability (SCPWD) under the Skill India Initiative in partnership with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC).

(Pics Courtesy Noida Deaf Society)

Reena Singh has more than 37 years’ experience in senior editorial positions in The Times of India (TOI) and Genpact. She was Deputy Editor with TOI’s spiritual newspaper, The Speaking Tree, where she spent nine years.