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Giving them a special place
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Fathers walked slowly with their arms around their sons' and daughters' shoulders while the mothers balanced their smaller children and distributed pamphlets, smiling at curious passers-by all the while.
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Bringing the Down's Syndrome issue out into the open.
ON SUNDAY evening, even as parents and children slowly filled up the Marina beach to enjoy the balmy breeze and watch the sun sink into the sea, across the road at Queen Mary's college groups of parents were getting ready to take a walk for the sake of their children.
Under the banner of `Parivaar', parents of special children affected by cerebral palsy, mental retardation, autism and multiple disabilities, came together to ask for equal rights for their children. The show of togetherness was moving, to say the least. Fathers walked slowly with their arms around their sons' and daughters' shoulders while the mothers balanced their smaller children and distributed pamphlets, smiling at curious passers-by all the while.
One little girl who was having difficulty walking held her sister's hand when she got tired, and behind her a group of young men enthusiastically waved their banners in the air, all the while keeping an eye on each other at the traffic junctions. As the slow procession weaved its way down the road, aided by a bevy of animated scouts and guides who ran up and down distributing water, traffic slowly came to a halt as people stared open mouthed at the children and their parents who were shouting, "We want equal status," and "Sympathy is human, empathy is noble."
Parvathy Viswanath, mother of a child affected by Down's syndrome and founder of the AIKYA school for mentally challenged children says that the biggest problem their children face is the fact that society sees them as outsiders. "People immediately think a mentally challenged child is `mad'. They don't understand that our children can become a part of everyday society if they are trained properly and not constantly pushed away." AIKYA, like most schools for the mentally challenged, not only teaches children social skills but also tries to ensure that the children are able to work by the time they leave school. The children are by then equipped to work for a living. In fact, one of AIKYA's old students is now a teaching assistant with them.
Rallies such as this one, which was sponsored by the Lions Club, are an attempt to reach and sensitise the Chennai public. According to Jaya Balasubramanian, President of the Spastics Support Society, there are about 82 parents associations in the city alone but since most of them are small organisations they have little clout. "Physically challenged and visually and hearing impaired people can fight for their rights, but these children cannot. The only people who can fight for them are us - their parents," adds Parvathy to explain why with the mentally challenged, it's more of a parents' movement.
"Nobody seems to care about our children. Apparently it's easier for people to just pretend they don't exist than to acknowledge and accommodate them in their world. Abroad, mentally challenged people are given jobs at department stores, as lift operators and as office boys, among other things. Here, people are so suspicious they don't want to even give them a chance. At the most people donate money, but just money is not enough. There has to be a major shift in attitudes," says one mother.
Another adds, "Government schemes for the mentally challenged are ignored. People are nervous of these children because they don't take the trouble to distinguish between mental illness and disability. It's a frustrating struggle we are waging, but all we can do is keep fighting and stay upbeat. People have just got to hear us."
By Shonali Muthalaly
Photo: S.R. Raghunathan
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
Madurai
Thiruvananthapuram
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