Hearing Impairment: An Indian perspective of the Disability

Abstract: There are many people who are physically disabled. The humanity can not prosper without the collective efforts of all the societies on this earth. All the efforts and all the research that have been carried out in social sciences has the sole aim to remove the disparities prevalent in the society. In our country, as being the largest populous nation in the world, the number of persons with disability is quite large. As per census of 2011 there were 2.68 crore of persons with disabilities and out of this 50,72, 914 persons alone are with hearing disability. The hearing impairment is the most common disability prevalent among the persons of all the age groups. The current paper is a review of research on hearing impairment in the Indian subcontinent over last more than 40 years. A total of 42 papers from 1977 to 2023 have been selected. There are 9 studies on causes of hearing impairment, 8 studies highlight hearing impairment in children and 3 papers highlight hearing impairment in old aged peoples. There are 20 studies highlighting hearing impairment in particular regions of the country and 5 studies highlights the use of technology in eradicating hearing impairment. It has been concluded that with mutual understanding in the society and with the use of modern hearing aids, the hearing impairment disability can be overcome.