Bathinda dist home to over 6800 special kids

Bathinda dist home to over 6800 special kids
Rajay Deep
Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 2
In a shocking revelation, as many as 6,871 children (6-14 years) in Bathinda district are found suffering either from mental or physical disability. Of these, 3,302 are girls.
As per the details collected by the education department through various surveys, 3,145 children in the district are suffering from visual impairment, 877 from hearing impairment and 698 from orthopedic disability. Besides, 648 are victims of mental retardation, 275 of cerebral palsy, 52 of autism, 912 of the learning disability (including slow learning) and 264 are facing multiple disabilities.
The staff and volunteers of the education department have collected the data under the Inclusive Education for Disabled (IED), a special component of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which ensures that each of the children with special needs is provided with a meaningful and quality education.
After identification, the education department officials are now going for formal assessment, appropriate educational placement and preparation of Individualised Educational Plan (IEP).
A large number of such children are admitted in the 41 resources rooms located in the district. Apart from this, the education volunteers have been assigned to visit hundreds of children, who are not capable enough to visit the resource room/ school, personally to provide home-based education, which includes training to deal with routine needs.
Though a majority of the children in the district have been provided with the required aids and appliances, a case for the requirement of 351 children has been recommended to the union ministry this week.
The district coordinator of the IED component, Ram Pal Singh, said, “Earlier, the special children used to avoid schools or leave it mid way due to one or the other disability. Under the IED, we provide the best possible aid/appliance to help a special child to get at least the basic education.”
He rued, “Despite best efforts of the education department, a large number of parents still do not show much interest in the scheme that may lead their children to suffer the whole life.”