Helping those in need

ALLAHABAD:Poonam Gupta, a student of BA, wants to join the education course for childrenwith special needs as she wants to do something in her life. Suchi Mishra, agraduate, wants to be a teacher of mentally retarded (MR) students as she knowsthat it offers tremendous job opportunities. Madhutendra, a post graduate, wantsto take up the course in community based rehabilitation as he wants to progressin life. Today, paramedical rehabilitation courses are attracting manystudents.In recent years, there has been a change in attitudetowards these paramedical rehabilitation courses as their scope has widenedimmensely, says Dr Neera Banerjee, opthalomologist and honorary project directorat Viklang Kendra. She said that Viklang Kendra is offering three such coursesnamely diploma in special education (cerebral palsy), diploma in community basedrehabilitation and certificate course in orthotics and prosthetics engineering.All these courses are recognised by the rehabilitation council of India (RCI).In present scenario, students with these qualifications are greatlyin demand. In case of special education, at present there are only 35,000teachers available in India, whereas the statistics places the need for over8,00,00 teachers of special education in future, she adds.Afterattaining a diploma in special education, a student can get a job placement withgovernment like in a CHC or under the Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), nongovernmental organisations, private nursing homes or even open new centres. Inthis course the student is trained about ways to teach children suffering fromcerebral palsy. As a teacher he is expected to train the child with activitiesof daily living (ADL) like toilet habits, buttoning up a shirt, holding a spoon,a pen initially which is followed by education. Here each child has to be dealtwith individually, adds Asha Mishra, Principal, Umang school for children withspecial needs.Community Based Rehabilitation deals with mainly firstline of action in rural areas. The student learns the ways to spread awarenessregarding deformities in young children and provide the primary treatment. Theyalso learn about requirements of a handicapped persons and trained to help thehandicapped adult acquire all the necessary documents These workers try tointegrate a handicapped youngster into the mainstream and help him lead acomfortable life. "Here, we choose students who are ready to work in ruralareas, are sensitive towards handicapped people and possess the art of publicspeaking, informs Dr Bhaskar Banerjee, hony secretary Viklang Kendra.Then the course on orthotics and prosthetics engineering deals withmaking artificial limbs, wheelchairs, tricycles, callipers etc. This job too ishighly in demand as very few organisations in India are making these. It ishighly technical and requires a lot of precision and hence only those childrenare chosen for the course who have a fine hand in carpentry or leather works andhave worked with tools, he continues.Dinesh Mani is ready to give uphis BA IInd year to join the courses here. These courses offer good careeropportunities, he says. Rajkumar from Sahidabad wants to join these courses as aboy in their locality has got a very good job in the same field. Suchi Mishra,an orphan, wants to take up these courses as it would give her an opportunity tohelp others in need. Geeta Verma wants to stand on her own feet so that she cansupport her ten year old son. Today I am dependent on my old father. After doingthis course I would get a job and become financially independent, sheopines.The list goes on. Dr. Komilla Thapa, Clinical psychologistAllahabad University was part of the team involved in selection. She said thatonly those children would be selected who are found to be sensitive towards theneeds of handicapped people and are keen to learn new techniques. Patience andpositive attitude were other criteria for selection, says Shradha Goberele,District Coordinator SSA.There are twenty one million handicapped(includes physical, mental, visual and deaf & dumb) people in India (2005census). The increase in demand for rehabilitation courses is due to awarenessabout these handicaps and possible remedies. It was in 1995 that Government tookactive interest in these fields and special schools were opened under theMinistry of Social Justice & Empowerment. Since then there has been nolooking back, adds Dr. Banerjee.