LIGHTING A LAMP FOR SPECIAL CHILDREN

In five year’s time, Deep Shikha in Ranchi has opened up a whole new world for handicapped youngsters, says Osama Manzar

‘The person with mental handicap is a full citizen of India, Asia and the world. The person with mental handicap enjoys the Rights recognised to the Human Being.”
—National Forum for Welfare of the Mentally Handicapped
I N TOO many of our schools, teachers pick on the kids who are slowest or weakest or who need the most help.
They scold them. They fail them. We children must stand up for those among us who are weaker or different and defend their rights to dignity and respect. We must never again permit anyone to terrorise the weak. In Child-to-Child, we have learnt many things. Above all, we have learnt that those of us who are a little bigger are more able to protect those who are smaller and weak Let us hope that we remember this lesson when we grow up, so that we will join the struggle for a new society: One where the strong can no longer take advantage of the weak, and where we can live in peace as equals.”
This is what little Darling said at a Child-to-Child work shop held in Nicaragua a few years back. It was a unique plat form for children who not only revealed the harsh truth of society but also pointed out the right remedy.
Fortunately, Darling is not the only one who cares. Alfa Haque, Anuj Choudhry and many others have time and again come to their alma mater, Deep Shikha, an Institute for Child Development and Mental Health in Ranchi, to share their experiences with the mentally retarded children who are being cared for here.
In this daycare centre, a couple of years back, Alfa and Anju had been admitted for care and counselling. Says, Alka Nizami, Clinical Psycholo gist, Deep Shikha, “Alfa Haque was brought here for behavioral problems. He was so hyper active that his parents used to lock him up in a room. We found him an ignored child. We cared for him. Eventually, he emerged as one of the best children: Responsive, active and confident.”
Like Alfa, Anju too, after pro per care and treatment, recovered from abnormal behaviour and joined a regular school. In a short span of five years, Deep Shikha has cured five children. They are now as normal as any other student in their school. “This we believe to be a remarkable achievement,” feels Sudha Lhila, Director of the daycare centre.
Some of the earliest and most significant developments in mental health in our country began in Ranchi. There are important psychiatric institutions in Ranchi, such as, Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ran chi Mental Asylum and David Nursing Home for the Mentally Retarded. However, “mentally handicapped individuals were not provided with specific training and rehabilitation facilities in these centres. Nor did they have any mental healthcare facility exclusively for children and adolescents,” says Lhila.
Under such circumstances, a group of women in Ranchi, who have been running a voluntary social organisation, Purshree, since 1974, started Deep Shik ha on July 17, 1988 with the aim to train and rehabilitate mentally handicapped children and adolescents.
“Deep Shikha strives to become an apex centre in this field, with a motto of ‘From despair to hope’,” asserts Alka Nizami.
Initially, Deep Shikha, was started as a daycare training centre for mentally handicapped children with three untrained teachers and a clinical psychologist for a group of only 12 children. That too, in the residence of a member of Purshree.
In the five years of its existence, Deep Shikha has already made its mark in the field of training and taking care of children with various handicaps and disabilities, not only in Ranchi, but also outside. Besides being a daycare service, Deep Shikha has blossomed into a centre for home management programme with pre vocational unit for future job- placements for handicapped children above 12 years of age.
It also has an open heart club, clinical psychology unit, audiometer and speech unit for measurement of hearing ability, epilepsy clinic and physiotherapy clinic to provide guidance to the parents of children having cerebral palsy and other motor deficits.
Special credit goes to Deep Shikha for its Manpower Training Programme. Under this programme Deep Shikha runs a 10-month diploma course in Mental Retardation (DMR), under the aegis of National Institute of Mentally Handicapped, Secunderabaci. “Deep Shikha is the only organisation in the State running a DMR course and the second in the eastern zone after Calcutta,” claims Alka Nizami.
Adds Lhila, “DMR’s main purpose is to inculcate among the incumbents every kind of responsibility, so that they can tackle and meet every essential and desirable need of retarded children.”
“Because,” as Nizami explains, “for two per cent of mentally retarded children, we have hardly a few thousand professionals.” According to the Prevalence Committee of Retardation, the estimated percentage of retarded children in India is two per cent of the total number of children.
It is also estimated, as Deep shikha’s newsletter reveals, that about 50 per cent of the disabled population falls under the severe group, requiring special care and rehabilitative efforts. About 40 per cent, ie., 3.2 crore are children. Ironically, 90 per cent of the voluntary social welfare organisations are catering to the needs of the disabled located in urban and semi-urban areas, even though 70 per cent of the disabled population lives in rural areas.
Undoubtedly, the future of mentally retarded children is very bleak, as there are meagre facilities and hardly any scope for integrated education. Generally, parents are reluctant in taking their child to a mental asylum set-up, as a “stigma is attached to it”, says Nizami.
“Therefore,” reveals Lhila, “Group parent meetings of handicapped children are held once a month to provide a platform to share views and first person experiences. Clinical psychologists, special educators and speech therapists also attend these meetings to encourage group participation and open discussions.”
Group parent meetings are a necessary feature in Deep Shikha, because every child of the institute is primarily suffering from learning disability termed dyslexia.
The children cannot speak properly. Whether it is Sympy, Sheetal or Chunnu Lal, everyone responds only to music, songs and toys. But, regular care and training have develop ed among these invalid children, an ability to make greetings cards and other handicraft items. “We generally sell such items and use the amount for the welfare of the same children,” says Lhila.
On record, so far, more than a thousand children have avail ed the facilities of Deep Shikha. At present, there is one specialist assigned to look after every five children. Thus, the monthly budget of the institute varies from Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000.
Apart from encouraging research programmes and awareness programmes, Deep Shikha, also publishes a monthly newsletter in Hindi. A recent issue of the newsletter declares:
When we do not see hope, we are blind, When we do not listen to the deprived, we are deaf When we do not protest against injustice, we are dumb, When we do not walk into unknown, we are lame, When we do not exert for a better society, we are mentally retarded.