From the States

Chennai: SSA ensures inclusion…..

About 400 day care centers will soon be set up under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan(SSA) scheme for students with high level of disability, at Block Resource Centers functional in 412 blocks across the State.

In a move to integrate children with special needs with their counterparts in mainstream schools, the Centre launched the Integrated Education of Disabled (IED) programme in 1974. It was later made a component of the SSA programme. An SSA official said that a special educator will monitor the students’ progress, in each centre and will be assisted by a ‘helper’.

Services of special educators from non-governmental organizations will be availed of, as was during the implementation of the IED programme. Inclusive education will continue to be the primary focus of the programme. However, special attention will be given to students with severe disability. The centers will have equipment to stimulate sensory organs, as well as aids and appliance to facilitate learning.

A sum of Rs.36, 000 has been allocated for each centre for special educator (Rs. 3,000), helper (Rs. 600) and about Rs.900 to cover travel expenses of the student and the escort. The programme will be conducted for eight months. The centers will cover 4,000 children.

Source: Care Centres for disabled Students. The Hindu, Daily, Chennai, 25 October 2006.

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Guwahati: Cochlear implant for deaf girl

A four-year-old deaf girl Upanksha Sarma of Nagaon, successfully underwent a highly-sophisticated cochlear implementation surgery at the Institute Centre (IERC), Guwahati.

The cochlear implantation surgery is a major break through in treating complete deafness. The method remains a highly expensive from of surgery. However, in the case of Upanksha, a socio-cultural organization of Nagaon, ‘Paridhi’ come in to assist in the payments.

Source:Deaf girl recovers, thanks to cochlear implantation surgery. The Sentinel, Daily, Guwahati, 4 November 2006.

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New Delhi: Self-financing loans for disabled

Financial worry is a recurring theme among families with disabled dependants. Nevertheless, there is a qualitative difference between those households, which have planned for long-term care, and those with little or no savings put-away. The first group of parents looks for assurance, through reliable instruments or some from of government-mandated guarantee, that the funds would be used as intended and not mishandled by third parties after their death. The latter need a plethora of advice on institutional care and savings plans. A one-stop agency has been proposed for this purpose. What is remarkable is the sense of self-help evident among these people, as seldom was heard a demand for outright state financial support to care for the mentally and physically handicapped.

It is heartening that ideas on largely self-financing loans offered by a state sanctioned parents’ focus groups, have been quickly accepted by the Government for study. The proposal for a non-profit trust to pool ‘investible’ saving is workable, provided the trustees appointed and the investment behavior are verifiably reliable. Government supervision or control would be advisable. This point was made pointedly by the proposers. The suggestion for a new CPF account to be created to cater to special needs was not addressed by the Ministry of Community Development in its response, possibly because the Fund has been chopped up into too many disparate uses already. It should not be discarded, though, as the CPF is the most appropriate state instrument for the safe husbanding of individual savings. Using them for the care of handicapped persons is not wasteful consumption; it has a stronger ethical claim than permitting savings for dicey stock investments, which incidentally have an unimpressive record. Another pet line of thinking - non-discriminatory health insurance for the disabled is least likely to gain acceptance, however.

This has been a considerable advance in bringing about a change in the thinking modes on the most vulnerable citizens. A plan for the disabled under study by a larger government committee will cover the job scope for disabled people, professional care giving and special education for children.

Source: Disabled cause gets a lift. The Statesmen, Daily, New Delhi, 28 October 2006.

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New Delhi: 100 Cochlear Implants at AIIMS

The ENT Department of the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) has successfully implanted cochlear implants (CI) in 100 children and adults. All of these patients who were deaf before the implant can now both speak and hear.

AIIMS was the first government hospital in the whole of North India to offer this path-breaking medical technology. To express gratitude, families of these patients also recently converged in New Delhi and celebrated “A Sound Future”.

According to Dr. R. C Deka, Head of the ENT Department and Dean of the AIIMS, “Our hospital has a trained team to ensure that patients are receiving good outcomes”.

Source: 100 Cochlear Implants at AIIMS. Delhi Mid Day, (Mon-Sat) New Delhi 4 November 2006.

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New Delhi: ICS postings of disabled delayed

Disabled rights activist Javed Abidi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over three disabled candidates who were selected to the Civil Service last year but have not received a posting.

Abidi said the candidates  Mani Ram Sharma of Bharatpur, Salma Fahim from Bangalore and Abhijit Chakraborty of Kolkata who figured on the list of disabled students qualifying in 2005 were among the first to avail the quota under the Disability Act of 1995. The 3 percent quota, he said, had been implemented on the PM’s intervention.

“It was in August or September that everyone else went to the Academy in Mussorie for training. The fate of these three got hung… we have tried to reach the Ministers concerned but to no avail,” he wrote.

Source: Disabled on ICS list: PM gets reminder. Indian Express, Daily, New Delhi, 5 November 2006.

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Srinagar: Delay in issuance of disability certificate

Shehzada Akhter, 45 daughter of Ghulam Mohammad, a resident of New Colony Bijbehara is a mentally ill woman. She had applied for her disability certificate at the concerned Chief Medical Officer (CMO) office in March 2006.

To her dismay, the department has not been able to provide her certificate till date, which she requires for a meager relief amount provided by the department of social welfare.

What makes her problem worse is that she has nobody to pursue her case as her only hope, a neighbor who was pursuing the case too has given up. The procedural wrangling that these disabled persons have to undergo for getting the disabled certificate is an ample proof that how much the government is concerned about their plight.

“The disability certificate in favor of a disabled person should be given within 24 hours and here the case is something different. One has to suffer for months together that too with spending thousand of rupees to get the same,” observes Javed Ahmad Tak, chairman Humanity Welfare Organization Helpline (HWOH).

The certificate serves as an important document for the physically or mentally challenged people, which enable them to get various concessions provided by the government as per the Disability Act. And without this certificate no matter how physically or mentally challenged one is, the authorities won’t consider their case.

Shehzada was denied the certificate as the concerned officials in Bijbehara forwarded different pretexts to shield the inefficiency of the government planning. “We were told that we have no psychiatrist available in the hospital who would certify Shwehzada’s case and they would always give us different dates,” remarked Arshad Ahmad, the volunteer of HWOH who was pursuing the case of Shehzada, after her neighbor left the case.

Physically or mentally challenged people cannot get the reservation due to them in admissions in different fields of education, employment and travel. What adds to the gravity of the situation is that there is no decentralization of powers to issue these certificates to the disables persons at tehsil levels.

Above all the medical boards that certify these cases seldom assemble in the CMO’s office to issue these certificates. Thousand of cases pending at various district headquarters can offer the ample proof to substantiate this argument.

“It becomes very difficult for the physically challenged people who have to move on a wheel chair to follow their cases. Besides the health department should have organized various camps for such an event where the physically challenged would project their cases and get their ‘disability certificates’. This would have saved them time, money and energy,” opined Tak, chairman HOWH.

When contacted, director health Dr. Muzaffar Ahmad said, “today I will issue a circular in this regard and I do not think that there are any cases pending at district headquarters. Now that you have brought this issue in my notice, I would direct all the CMO’s in this regard.”

Lets’ hope for the best!

Source: Physically, mentally challenged at receiving end of official apathy. Kashmir Times, Daily, Jammu, 4 November 2006.

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