No room for special children at this institute

Dehu Road Cantonment Board run institute has been expelling students arbitrarily, stating age and funds as reasons

Mental health is just as difficult or even more difficult to manage than physical ailments. However, a government-funded organisation has been expelling students arbitrarily, as they are allegedly difficult to manage and might cause trouble for the school later.

Disha is a special home for differently-abled children. The school and shelter is run by the Dehu Road Cantonment Board, which looks after children who are physically and mentally disabled, by working on their all-round growth and rehabilitation. The institute has been running on funds generated by the cantonment board, in the premises of the cantonment board hospital.
 But what was started as a noble initiative has now lost its way. Disha started as a centre with 24×7 helplines for children and shelter for special children. It had a sensory garden and even had medical help for the children who came daily. However, it has now fallen in disarray as the helplines are disbanded, the shelter doesn’t work like it should and the sensory garden, meant anyway for blind students, none of whom are in the institute, has nothing but few marigold bushes. Its facilities now include teaching the children alphabets and rhymes, whereas no special care for their rehabilitation is taken. Disha, even though it is government-funded, doesn’t have a licence from the Department for the welfare of disabled people.

While all of this has been going on for some time, the dismissal of children arbitrarily has started recently. For this academic year, many parents were told not to bring their wards to Disha anymore. These parents were also told that if they complained, action would be taken against them by the board, forcing them to stay quiet or to state that they don’t send their children out of their will. However, a few parents expressed their grievances and they were told that they did not have funds to arrange transport or that their children ‘did not meet the criteria’ of Disha. While no official letter states their dismissal, the team involved did not take any verbal or written effort to get these children back when they stopped coming to the institute. Team TGS decided to speak to a few of the affected students’ parents.

Rahul

Rahul is a shy nine-year-old, who turns into a boisterous boy as soon as he meets his group of playmates. However, he can’t run around like them as both his legs are disabled. He sits in a crude metal wheelchair his father could afford to buy him, all day and enjoys watching his friends play. His younger sister and his friends are the only family looking after him as his parents go to work and return late after sundown. Rahul suffers from malnutrition and that has rendered him frail, and without any special training, his condition just keeps deteriorating.

“The school van just wouldn’t come to pick dada up. He used to go daily, but he has stopped since March,” says his younger sister. Rahul just looks up sadly when enquired about the school and says nothing. When asked, he meekly mutters, “The vehicle doesn’t come to pick me. How do I go?” Since Rahul can’t walk, the helper had to pick him up and put him in the vehicle. Since the school now has a female helper, he couldn’t be picked and thus was expelled, his friends tell us. “He had also fallen down in there, once,” says one of his friends and Rahul stops him with a glare. His sister confirms, “He had slipped from his chair and no one was around to even pick him up.” Rahul’s parents are labourers working at the broom factory in the area. He stays alone the entire day with no one to help and take care of him. Whatever little he was learning in the school has stopped along with the little exercise he was getting. His head wound is gone, but this is a bigger wound that is making his future bleak.

Aakash

Aakash Hukke, 25, gets excited at the mere mention of school. Mentally handicapped, his physical growth surpasses his mental growth. However, he loves going to Disha which for him is ‘school’. “He has been going there for the past ten years. So, it has become a part of his daily routine. Every day, he would dress up, wake us up to tie his shoe laces and would wait for his ‘sir’ to come and pick him up. He continues to do the same; even though no one has come to pick him up for nearly three months now.
 “He was so enthusiastic about going to Disha. He loved the company there and had even learnt a lot of things. He had even won a state dancing competition in Nashik, where they had gone from Disha. However, then the administration changed and slowly all of it stopped,” recounts his mother Alka Hukke. Meanwhile, Akash is busy showing us his copies, all of which are his attempts to write the alphabet and his own name. All of this was part of the Disha school work.
 Alka has made several rounds of the institute. “They give me different answers all the time. First it was about the non-availability of funds, and then they said they don’t have staff. So, I volunteered brining him up to the school. Then they started complaining about how Aakash is old now. Tell me, can he ever behave like an adult? Then why are they treating him like one?” she said.
 However, the biggest defence for the institute is Aakash’s age. According to them, he has grown too old, at least physically, to be helped.

Chandani

Chandani does not looks like a 21-year-old. Her mental and physical growth stopped at the age of two. She understands when she is being spoken to, but is unable to speak, comprehend or respond. She is able to stand up with support, but is unable to walk and has several other health constraints.
 She lives at Dehu Road with her maternal grandmother. “My daughter’s in-laws would have killed her had I left her with them. She is my responsibility now as her parents can’t look after her,” says Akkatai Pawar, her grandmother. When she was enrolled in Disha, five years earlier, she was in an even worse condition as she couldn’t stand and was unable to ingest food. “Earlier, there was a doctor madam, who took it upon herself to get routine check-ups and physiotherapy done. She has now been replaced by someone who just puts Chandani in a corner,” she said. She was okay with even that as it provided Chandani with a favourable distraction. “However, one day they came and told us that there’s nothing that they could do to help her and that she should not be sent to Disha anymore,” Akkatai said.
 Akkatai and her husband are both in their 70s. Their son is the breadwinner and he works for the cantonment board. She says, “I can’t ask him to look after Chandani without feeding his own kids. So, Disha was our only hope.” Now that even they have turned their backs, Chandani has nowhere to go.
 It wasn’t like this always, Akkatai recounts. “Earlier, there were physiotherapy sessions that helped her gain balance to stand up. She even had a proper diet chart planned out and the doctors there helped in whatever way they could.” She was even invited for special gatherings and was looked after. “Without any help from the government how are we to look after all of her medical needs when we just have enough to feed everyone?” asks a dejected Akkatai.
 Her husband, Ganpat adores Chandani and sits in a corner holding her the entire time. He interrupts, “We will look after her till our life goes on. But, what after that?”

While these three are only few of the cases, there are many other children, some of whom have been sent to their villages as parents can’t afford the time and money to look after them. Many have even decided to keep them in the houses, even if the institute takes them back, stating, “If the institute throws them back again, we won’t know how to handle them anyway. It is better they stay at home.”
 Deepti Salvi, a child activist from Nigdi believes that it is a grave issue and needs to be looked into by the authorities. “Clearly the institute is throwing out students that have the potency to cause problem for them or are difficult to handle. But they need counselling and proper guidance, not the tantrums of the institute,” she says.
 However, Abhijeet Sanap, the CEO of Dehu Road Cantonment Board said that he was unaware of the entire situation. “I haven’t received any communication from anyone about this. I am not sure if children were actually expelled or not,” he said. The person in charge of Disha, Dr Sami, when contacted by TGS cited that he wasn’t authorised to comment on it and his senior, the Resident Medical Officer Dr Waghchoure should be consulted.
 Dr Waghchoure said, “Anyone above 18 years of age cannot be taken to the school. They are sent to rehabilitation centre. There is also no compliance on us to provide these children with vehicle. Neither Pune Cantonment, nor does Kirkee cantonment provide for vehicles. So why should we? We do this for welfare of children as much as we can.”
 Speaking about the issue of not having the licence to run the institute, he said, “We have applied for the licence long ago. It is still under process.”

gargi.verma@goldensparrow.com

Originally published on The Golden Sparrow