EVERY CHILD IS IMPORTAT; A DISABLED ONE TOO…

-K.L.Praharshitha

Around the world, there is an adequate fraction of children in the human kind who suffer from
some kind of physical or mental disability, which may be congenital or acquired. Despite their
misery, the efforts made by governments and non-governmental agencies to improve their
conditions through rehabilitation procedures continue to be inadequate and there is much more to
be done

A UNICEF survey has concluded that, 30% of street youth are disabled. The countries where
IMR rates are high, mortality rates disabled children are as high as 80%. The situation is worse
in some case where the children with disabilities are being weeded out. 90% of children with
disabilities across the globe do not attend the school. Children with disabilities are at 1.7 times
greater risk of being vulnerable to some form of violence.1

Article 23 of the 1989 Convention focuses on the protection of the rights of children with
disabilities. The facility of special care and extended assistance, is given upon application, to any
disabled child, taking into considerstion the circumstances of the child and those who have the
resposibility of taking care of his or her care. The assistance is to be specially designed to ensure
that the children with disabilities have adequate access to it. Furthermore, the right to receive
education, training, health care services, rehabilitation services, preparation for employment and
recreation opportunities has been secured to achieve the goals of social justice and
development. The United Nations Organisation has also identified that it is less expensive and
more affective to provide appropriate rehabilitation services than to simply provide the
necessary medical care without rehabilitation to an impaired individual.

In India 1.67% of the population has some kind of disability. 35.29% of all the disabled people
are children. Another estimate says that India has 12 million children living with either physical
or mental disability. Medical expets have reported that one third of identified disabilities are
preventable. The preventive measures of vaccination and immunisation are being implemented at
a good pace for theprevention of the same. Further, only 1% of such children have access to
school . In India 80% of children with disabilities are found to be not surviving past age forty.
1
Seligman, M., and Darling, R. B. (1989). Ordinary Families Special Children, Guilford Press, New York
The population of Indian disabled children include mainly those with locomotor disabiliy,
hearing handicap, speech handicap, visual handicap mental retardation and cerebral palsy. The
periodical surveys of the National Sample Survey Organization and the reports of the
Rehabilitation council of India on Manpower Development show a general picture that about 2%
of the total population of the country are the children with disabilities belonging to the age group
of 5-14 years. In India, children with disabilities mainly come under the purview of the Ministry
of Social Justice and Empowerment exclusively while some of the issues and dealt with by the
Health Ministry. The Indian government has formulated legislations and polices pertaining to
disability The evolution of rehabilitation policy has been primarily laid down by the following
welfare provisions;

 The National Policy of Education (NPE) 19862 ; The main objective of this policy is to
provide education to all children including the disabled. The objective of the policy is to
primarily integrate the physically and mentally handicapped children with the general
community
 The Comprehensive Action Plan on Inclusion in Education of Children and Youth
with Disability 2005: The Ministry of Human Resource Development through this
scheme, has promised to adopt inclusive education for disabled children.
 The Rehabilitation Council of India Act 1992 ;The aim of the Act is to improvise the
manpower development programs in the sphere of education of children with special
needs, in compliance with the government decisions to set up a rehabilitation council
under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
 The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full
Participation) Act, 1995; The Act aims at securing full-fledegd life to the disabled
individuals by making all efforts to cater to help them with with their disability
conditions. The Act covers the disability conditions like blindness, low vision, leprosy,
hearing impairment, locomotive disability, mental illness and retardation.
 The National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental
retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act, 1999; this Act aims at the constitution of a
body for the welfare of children affected by certain disabilities like Autism, Cerebral
Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities.
2
“ Unique Disability ID” , Dept of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, www.swavlambancard.gov.in
  Special Educational Programmes emphasizing on the protection of right to education
of the disabled children. The following are the presently available programmes for
education of different categories of handicapped children:
o Integrated Education Programme for children with minor disability in an ordinary school,
under the Scheme of Integrated Education for Disabled Children formulated under the
Ministry of Human Resources Development.
o Special School Programme for the badly disabled children in a special school formulated
by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
o Educational oppurtunities provided through the National Open School to children with
disability , through the support of study centers, sponsored by the Ministry of Human
Resources Development. The facilities offered include parent-infant training (for age
group 0-2 years), pre-school (2-5 years), preparatory classes (5-8 years), remedial
teaching through non-formal education set-up (8-14 years).

Besides, the government has also enabled various provisions focusing on guaranteeing various
special privileges to protect and secure the interests of the disabled children. These include travel
Concessions by road, rail, air and sea ,Conveyance Allowance, Concession for Communication,
Custom/Excise Concession, Assistance for Purchase/Filling of Aids/Appliances, Vocational
Rehabilitation facilities ( by establishingvarious institutes like District Rehabilitation Centres
(DRCs), National Institute of Rehabilitation Training etc ). Also, The medical institutes to ensure
the provision of a platform for both the treatment and the evolution of relavant medical
technology have been developed by the state at a large scale .

Societal and the parental role

Children are generally considered as a vulnerable group in the society; especially those with
disabilities face additional complicated challenges. Enabling them to face those additional
challenges, is one of the greatest challenges to the parents and caregivers. To effectively
discharge this responsibility they need a specific system which arms them in providng all the
special attention and pre-requisite conditions that the children with disabilities need . Besides
they should inculcate in their kids all the necessary moral strength and optimistic approaches to
deal with their agony . Further, parents should also always have in mind that the ultimate aim is
not only the cure but also to providing such children with a sense of fulfillment and dignity.
3
Normally, the parents and individuals have a tendency to conceal the physical disabilities from
others, particularly in the neighborhood, as those attributes have the potential to become an open
secret and attach a lifelong social stigma preventing them to lead and enjoy a normal life. This
insensitive approach shall be avoided. The society’s relationship with children with disabilities,
helps greatly in dealing with the complicated task of adapting to the society that the disabled
child undertakes . The societal assistance should therefore have a four fold objective:

a) The society should realise that children with disabilities have along with needs and interests,
several characteristics and potentials similar to other children.

b) The sensible response from the cultural, governmental, organizational and procedural strands
of life is much awaited by the disabled children. Therefore, each of these strands should offer its
own opportunities to disabled children for a more involved role in the society.

c) The strereotypical ways of handling disabled children should be replacs with more versatile
modern techniques and ideas.

d) The sustainable progress occurs when all four arenas (cultural, governmental, organizational,
and procedural) are structurally and functionally integrated to provide them with the utmost
beneficial provisions.4

Further, The individual skills should be ascertained and a skill-based training programmes
should be offered along with the manpower development programs so that the disability could
be defected. The aim shall be the integration of these children completely in the natural work
environment by the time they adulthood leaving no scope forsocial exclusion. Further the
society should be considerate enough to make the access to various goods, facilities and
services, easier to the disabled group. ‘Services’ here include the public places, means of
communication and information services, accommodation services, banking, insurance, credit or
financial facilities for education, entertainment, recreation or refreshment facilities, employment
training agencies, etc

3
Walsh, F. (1996). The concept of family resilience: Crises and challenge. Fam. Process 35: 261-281
4
Blacher, J. (1984). Sequential stages of parent adjjjustment to the birth of a child with handicaps: Facts or
artifacts ? Meant. Retard. 22 : 55-68.
 The most sensible approach to deal with the disabled people in general and such children in
specific is to accept the fact that ‘It is the need of the hour to beware that that disability is not
something hideous , instead it is to be treated with greater dignity and humanity’ .To conclude,
this is an actual transition of the children with various disabilities from the status of disability to
the status of those specially enabled lifestyle.