According to the National Social Service Organisation, 97 per cent of people suffering from hearing impairment "suffer silently", mainly because of the stigma attached to use of hearing aids in India.

Giving details to newspersons here yesterday, Vikram Pal, Director, GN Resound India Private limited, distributors for GN Resound Worldwide, a leading manufacturer of hearing aids, said lack of awareness was also a reason for people not using hearing aids.

Statistics showed it took seven years for people suffering from hearing problems to approach medical practitioners and audioligists for hearing aids.

The dearth of professionals was also a reason for people not getting access to quality hearing aids, he said. There was only one professional for 32 lakh people in the country.

Announcing the launch of "Metrix," a top-end hearing aid in the country, Mr Pal said the state-of-the-art instrument was fully digitised and could solve all problems.

The aid, priced at Rs 1.10 lakh, had features like speech clarity, sound quality, open comfort and fitting accuracy. Hearing aids, available in four models, could either be fixed inside the ear or behind the ear, he said.

The company had sold eight lakh instruments a year, of which 17 per cent were sold in Europe, US, Japan and Australia. The company proposed to sell 35,000 units during this financial year, he added.

Source: http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=193677&n_date=20051217