Manish Kumar
Agreed, provisions related to the proper handling of kids with special needs exist on pen and paper, but infrastructural deficiencies, and especially the
quality of teaching, leave a lot to be desired
Bhubaneswar, Sept 4: Gargi Bhattacharya, an autism activist from the city and mother of an autistic child who passed away last year, is now toiling hard with her husband to set up a one-stop centre in Khurda for children suffering from autism.
Recently, the couple formed a foundation to give shape to their aspirations and is spearheading the movement to help thousands of autistic children living in the state. But what compelled Gargi to take to a different turf for the sake of the needy?
Experts from the city opine that notwithstanding the provisions of the rulebook, the ground reality is different and special measures are needed to secure the future of children with special needs.
The ambitious Orissa Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2010 mandates that children with disabilities should be provided with special learning support systems, their records should be maintained by the School Management Committee (SMC) and there should not be any discrimination of children with special needs. Many such provisions are then bolstered with the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) mission.
However, despite numerous provisions existing in the form of laws and guidelines, the ground reality is different and obstacles are many. According to the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA), the state is home to 33,883 children suffering from some kind of mental ailment. These include kids suffering from mental retardation, autism and cerebral palsy.
Asit Kumar Behera, a disability activist working at Swabhiman, says, “Special kids need special attention but they cannot be segregated from the mainstream. There are ample provisions under RTE or SSA but the reality shows up a sorry state of affairs. For these kids we need counselors, special teachers and other infrastructure which are lacking at many institutions making the lives of the kids tougher despite the existence of provisions.”
Similar views are shared by child rights activist Pradipta Nayak. He says, “Due to the non-implementation of significant provisions of RTE, the fate of these children hangs in balance. The law mandates the formation of school management committees comprising parents, local representatives and the school management to discuss critical issues. But a number of schools in the state still don’t have SMCs and the meetings held are not regular.”
However, according to OPEPA’s annual report enrollment of kids with special needs is increasing in government schools. The state government claims that infrastructure is decent and corrective surgeries are being done along with provision of aids and appliances.
In 2012 Swabhiman conducted a detailed study to profile disabled people in the state and came out with astonishing facts. In the report it said, “Most teachers and parents were of the opinion that special kids should go to special schools. The anxieties expressed by parents included, among others, the lack of awareness of school authorities on the issue.”
It added, “Other concerns were schools do not have the required infrastructure required by special kids, teachers are not equipped with the necessary skills to handle CWSN, teachers advise parents to admit their children to ‘special schools’, and some schools even go to the extent of asking for extra money for the special care that the children would need.”
Many experts working in the field of policymaking claim that the state of affairs is improving with the intervention of the Central government and people are coming together to work on issues that have eluded a solution till date.
Ram Kishore Sharma, member of the state SSA resource group, said, “Compared to other states the enrollment ratio of special kids in the state is better. The move to involve block resources teachers who have been entrusted with the task of taking care of the problems of special kids is also a welcome step. Besides, CBSE has recently instructed schools to recruit two teachers in every school to take care of special kids. These moves are likely to have a beneficial effect.”