evidence: ISL is essential for communication for over 71 lakh Indians (that’s nearly as much as the population of Hong Kong), according to the Census of 2011. ‘It’s such a shame, right, that we just have close to 800 ISL interpreters in the entire country?’ asks Malhotra. The number of certified ISL interpreters is even lower, at 300, as per the Indian Sign Language and Research Training Centre (ISLRTC), a government institution set up in 2015 in Delhi to promote learning of ISL. ‘If you look at any foreign language in India, it would have thousands of interpreters as against ISL, that’s an Indian language.’ [...] In July 2019, the Delhi High Court gave its judgement on Nipun Malhotra’s petition, declining official language status to ISL while stating that adequate legal protections for ISL already exist. Despite this, Malhotra believes his petition triggered a useful conversation. ‘ISLRTC has become more active; during this year’s Cricket World Cup, for the first time there were sign language commentators, and the Indian National Congress in its 2019 manifesto promised to recognise sign language if it came to power,’ Malhotra says. In March 2019, ISLRTC came up with second edition of its sign-language dictionary, as a follow-up to India’s first-ever ISL dictionary that it launched last year. Malhotra now hopes that the government will introduce a bill in Parliament to recognise ISL as India’s 23rd official language.