Only 1% disabled children are in mainstream schools

New Delhi, Feb 13 (UNI) Suraj, a 12-year-old physically disabled child from

Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, was among the hundreds of children with

disabilities, who marched to Parliament today demanding their Right

to Education.

His mother carrying him on a wheelchair hoped that her child will get proper education and health treatment to be able to lead a normal life.

They were part of a movement, initiated by All India Parents Association (AIPA) and supported by many NGOs working for children to ensure more than two crore
disabled children their Right to Education.

AIPA president Ashok Aggarwal said, ''Even after 62 years of Independence, only one per cent out of two crore disabled children are in the mainstream schools.''
Saying that the children with disabilities are grossly deprived of all fundamental rights, Mr Aggarwal told UNI

''There is a need to enact a national law specifically for the children with special needs and enforce all the authorities to implement it.''

He also mentioned that there was a dearth of staff in schools to take care of their educational needs, which shows the government's apathy towards the educational needs of such children.

The AIPA on behalf of all other human rights organisations wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into the matter.

In the letter, it was demanded that all the government schools in the country should be upgraded to the minimum level of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan
(KVS) schools.

Articulating that there was a widespread exploitation of parents of disabled children by private schools, General Secretary of Summer Fields Public School Parents Association Bipin Arora noted, ''Commercialisation of education should be immediately curbed.''

Reiterating Mr Aggarwal's demand of national law, he stated that a lot of things were missing in the existing laws so enactment of new law was necessary.

Director of Chetnalya, an NGO, Father Susai Sebastian pointed out few necessary things for all the schools in India to educate special children.

He said, ''Basic facilities like resource centre and special ramp are must for every school to support children with special needs.''

He also urged the parents and the whole community to support and work for these children.

During the ninth national meeting of State Commissioners for Persons with Disabilities here two days ago, Union Minister for Social Justice and
Empowerment Mukul Wasnik accepted that lakhs of disabled children were yet to identified.

There is a need to identify such children across the country especially in the rural areas as more than 75 per cent of the disabled lived there, he observed.