The National Surveys 2021 (Empowering Deaf Indians) is an initiative undertaken by Mook Badhir Mandal (MBM), Vadodara to collect data on different issues that members of Indian Deaf community face, especially of Indian Sign Language (ISL) users. The data is displayed on the website and also shared with all, individuals and NGOs, for action-oriented activities.
The initiative is sponsored by Mr. Sarvesh Jain, founder of Orjet Foundation (OF), Ahmedabad. Mr. Sarvesh is young Deaf businessman based in Ahmedabad and is an alumni of Gallaudet University, USA.
The team that is working on the development survey questionnaires on different topics and sharing the survey links among Deaf members of India online in order to collect data are experts who are also Deaf individuals themselves. Mr. Rajesh Ketkar (BCA), Project Director, MBM is the team leader.
Other team members viz. Mr. Sunil Sahasrabudhe [MA and M.Ed. (HI)], Mr. Udayan Joshi (BE - Polymer Engineering) and Mr. Virbhadra Rathod (technical expert) also contribute to the initiative with their expertise for the benefit of Indian Deaf ISL community. Indian Deaf ISL users and Deaf organisations who participate in and support these surveys are important part of the initiative.