Print    Email

Email To		[Close]
		You must make entries in all fields
Your Email
Your Name
Send to Email
		Send

In the attempt of controlling misuse of SMS facility, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently imposed a limit of 100 SMS per day. In the first hurdle towards its restrictions, TRAI faces the fighters of humanitarian causes, the All- Kerala Deaf Association. TRAI’s initiative to cap the number of SMSes a day was undertaken to block pestering text messages but has indeed given a thick ear to a bunch of unsuspected victims - the hearing impaired. The association seeks exception from this law for the benefit of all deaf, whose major source of communication is the SMS facility in mobile phones.

TRAI had ordered that no access provider should permit the transmission of more than 100 SMSes per day per SIM but it seems they became oblivious of the strata of society for whom SMS is not a facility but a necessity. In Kerala alone, over 2,000 hearing-impaired people have been using SMS services as their primeval mode of communication. The messaging service had revolutionalised their world enabling them to travel independently and work beyond their familiar boundaries while staying in touch with their family, friends, office. Many have now become used to sending up to 250 SMSes a day for just routine communication.

All-Kerala Association of the Deaf (AKAD) has written to TRAI seeking an exemption for the hearing disabled. Rajeev Kumar, vice-president of AKAD, Kasargod said, “There are close to 1,500 people who use mobile phone only for sending messages. Sending SMS has been a way of self-expression for most of them. We have been sending over 250-300 messages per day. Even for simple communications, right from 'Good Morning' to 'Thank You', they need this service. Also, if they want to have a proper communication with another person, it takes more than 10 to 15 messages,” Indian express reported.

Kumar suggested that those who provide medical certificates to service providers at the time of connection application, can be granted exemption from the SMS cap. He raises concern over another significant matter, “We might be sending only five SMSes but owing to increased number of characters, the end result will be 15-20 SMSes. If a text message exceeds 160 characters, it will be a fresh message.” It is crucial to note that the hearing-impaired students in schools and colleges also have been using SMS service for their study purposes.

According to ibnlive, Fr Mathai Joseph, Cherkala Marthoma Deaf and Dumb Special School in Kasargod commented that students have been increasingly drawn towards SMSing to communicate with each other regarding their lessons. The cap on the number of messages has come as a big blow to these children and the school is thinking about what can be done on this issue.

Since the new law came into effect on September 27, the subsequent SMS restriction has invited strong opposition from other students all over the country, who fall within the largest SMS user group.