*International Day Of Deaf 28 September 2020* 📢📢📢 India has 1.8 Crore deaf people out of which 20 lakh are children. Out of these 20 lakh, 12 lakh attend basic schooling and rest 8 lakh are drop out's. There are 46.6 crore deaf in the world which constitutes 5.3 % of world's population. Prevalence of deafness in South east Asia ranges between 4.6 % to 8.8 % . * *Preventable & Non preventable Hearing loss** 🎯 Out of all cases of HL some cases are certainly preventable. These include deafness due to wax, ear infection, trauma mainly domestic violence related trauma, Noise induced occupational hearing loss, just to name a few. Some cases like Genetic losses are non preventable. None the less, these *Non preventable* losses are largely *CORRECTABLE* . As per WHO estimate 50% cases are preventable. Out of non preventable HL cases 30% are correctable with the help of *appropriate* *hearing aid.* Most serious impact of deafness on child's life is *impaired development of speech and language.* Early age of 1-5 years is most crucial in this regards. Hence it's most important to pick up the deafness in early childhood and start rehabilitation. *Economic burden of deafness* 💰💰 Whereas economic impact of deafness is huge in India, it is broadly understood in 4 subsets. a. Burden on healthcare sector like treating patients of HL, associated co morbidities like vertigo and tinnitus, providing rehabilitation devices like hearing aids. b. Second largest burden is on education sector in terms of special needs of education of deaf, associated problems like high drop out rates of deaf children. c. Third visible impact is in terms of loss of productivity, loss of employment, early retirement of deaf people. d. Largest but invisible burden of deafness is on social life due to stigma, lack of confidence, lack of good communication skills and social isolation. Unfortunately, unlike the disability due to Blindness, people with deafness, mostly get rediculed by society. Unlike blindness, deafness remains unattended, uncared, un noticed and even neglected. Whereas national blindness program exists for more than 50 yrs in India, deafness control program started barely 10 years ago. *What about social schemes?* As per the disability act hearing impaired person gets disabilty certificate if he has 60dB loss in better ear. This level constitutes severe to profound loss. This unfortunately excludes many patients having moderate to severe loss and facing serious impairment in day to day life. Hence a large section of deaf population is deprived of social security schemes of government. None the less getting disabilty certificate even if you qualify for that, involves huge corruption. *Here comes the role of you and me.* 🤝🤝🤝 Fight against deafness involves *few simple steps.* a. Early detection of deafness in adults. b. Timely treatment of deafness including medical and surgical treatment. c. Rehabilitation of non preventable deafness including Hearing aid fitting. d. Neonatal hearing screening. Catch them young in first year itself. e. Speech language and hearing rehabilitation of deaf child before it's too late We at *SAIDEEP ENT HOSPITAL and D. V. JOSHI Charitable Foundation* have pledged to work on these frontiers. We provide assistance to socio-economically underprivileged people to get good digital hearing aids & surgical treatment of deafness. We conduct diagnostic camps for deafness in adults and neonatal hearing screening camps. This herculean task needs an United effort of all. You all can contribute to this *fight against deafness* with our organisation or in your own way. Help a needy to reach us. Help us to reach their needs. What I want to convey is " *STOP BEING DEAF TOWARDS A DEAF".* 📢 DR AMOL JOSHI. SAIDEEP ENT HOSPITAL D V JOSHI CHARITABLE FOUNDATION. PUNE. 9890708363, 9545984289