Gorkha Association of the Deaf

Ram Kushal Pant was born deaf, and of the seven children in his family, he is one of four born deaf. His two older deaf siblings never had a chance to get an education and know very little sign language. But Ram went to the Naxal School for the Deaf in Kathmandu, received his SLC (School Leaving Certificate), and became the first, and only, president of the Gorkha Association of the Deaf (GOAD). He's been the president for 14 years, and has been re-elected to his position five times. He and his wife Sanita are the only deaf adults living in Gorkha; most of GOAD's 35 members are scattered in villages around the province. Ram himself was born in a village five hours walk away from Gorkha. Sanita also finished her education at the Naxal School and became a teacher at the Shree Manakamana Deaf School (the Gorkha school), where she teaches Class 0. Now they have their hands full with a beautiful 18-month old daughter, who is hearing.

In the past, deaf people in Nepal rarely got married. They received very little education, had no way to communicate, and a marriage to another deaf person was believed to perpetuate a cycle of "negative" karma. Ram and Sanita are only one of several successful deaf couples I have met. However, all of these couples have hearing children (a CODA, in American deaf parlance, is the Child Of a Deaf Adult). In American Deaf culture, having a deaf child is cause for celebration. I wonder how deaf parents here feel about their children being hearing. It's a paradox for deaf parents; on the one hand, their child has access to opportunities that the deaf often do not have. On the other, a CODA will not carry on deaf culture in the same way a deaf child would, and there may be a rift in communication later in life between deaf parents and hearing children. Many deaf children do not have close ties to their hearing parents, who may never bother to learn sign language or to treat their child's difference as anything but a disability. By this token, having a hearing child may bring up painful memories of a deaf parent's own childhood, and fears that the same thing will happen with their own children.

Both Ram and Sanita told me that they would've been happy regardless of whether their child was born hearing or deaf. They plan to send their child to a hearing school in a few years, and they don't intend to teach her sign language. The little girl is just learning to talk, and she does know a few words of Nepali sign-- ball, milk, and eat, among others. Does she realize yet how her parents are different from her, and how will she feel about it, in a culture that often considers deafness to be a curse?


From left: Ram and his daughter, myself, my mother, and Sanita.