Lack of transport prevents disabled children from attending school inspite of being enrolled

Updated on: Monday, December 03, 2012

Though enrolled at Drishti Samajik Sansthan (also know as Drishti), five-year old Sapna, a child with multiple-disabilities living in interiors of Bakshi ka Talab (BKT) is unable to come to school as there is no means of suitable means of public or private transport. As a result, she is deprived of the learning through the daily routine.

She is not alone in her predicament. There are hundreds of disabled children who meet similar fate and at a time when the government, both at Centre and state levels, is making efforts to ensure that every child between the ages of six and 14 receives elementary education under the Right to Education (RTE) Act. The Act categorically takes differently-abled children under its ambit.

A non-government NGO, Drishti has 300 children from classes nursery to VIII enrolled in the school. The children come to school regularly. Besides, there are more than a 100 who, though enrolled, never attend the class. They miss school because the bus provided by the school is unable to pick and drop them to and from their villages. "The disabled children live in a far-off village. Though we provide free to and fro transport it is unable to cover far-off villages. We need more funds to reach out to more disabled children,'' said Neeta Bahadur, founder-president of the organisation.

The school not only educates disabled children to understand the basic needs of life but also trains them to perform basic daily routine functions like- hygiene, proper dressing and eating skills. It also provides vocational training to students depending on their physical and mental ability. Training is imparted in weaving, candle-making, stitching and others.

The NGO gets a grant of approximately Rs 12-13 lakh annually from the Central government to run the school. Every year, the government is curtailing the grant by 10% making it difficult for school to fulfill the basic needs of the disabled children. While much of the grant goes in meeting the salaries of the teachers, the organisation has to take loans to run the school properly.

Similarly, the Bachpan day care centre, an initiative of the state government, is facing severe shortage of funds. The centre running in eight cities including Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Bareilly, Agra, Jhansi, Saharanpur, and Gautambudh Nagar provides free rehabilitative interventions to visually challenged, hearing impaired, multiple-disability, mentally retarded, autistic and cerebral palsy children through technology and experts to improve their intellectual and cognitive skills and prepare a child and his/her family to manage their handicap child with a positive attitude.

At present, there are 61 children aged between three to six years who study in the school. Centre coordinator Vijay Lakshmi said, "During admission season, we put nearly 85-90 children on the waiting list and we feel bad for not being able to help them.'' Teachers at the centre said with insufficient funds, they were struggling to survive. In the past years, number of toys for the children were reduced due to shortage of funds.

Parents of the disabled children, however, feel education of their wards is not on the government's priority list. "Either there is a lack of will among the government officers or they are heartless,'' said a parent who is unable to send her disabled child to school. Had he been financially well off, he would have sent the child to a private school.

But state government officials believed that 100% disabled children are getting education in primary schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. Director, state handicapped welfare department, R B Singh was unavailable for comment.

Lack of transport prevents disabled children from attending school inspite of being enrolled

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