1981—year of the Handicapped

We are well aware that 1981 has been declared as International year for the handicapped. All those countries including India, who are signatories to this resolution owe a special responsibility towards providing some fundamental facilities for the vast numbers and varieties of the handicapped. Though India has, since ancient times, extended humanitarian consideration to the handicapped, yet for a variety of reasons in modern times, the rehabilitation of the handicapped has been slow to assume an observable proportion. Socioeconomic factors have indeed relegated the handicapped to a back seat. The other hurdle responsible for insignificant growth is a conspicuous absence of reliable information about the extent of the problem. Even then whatever information is available and however controversial it may be, an alarming number of men and women need help. According to a report presented at National Seminar cum Workshop on Rural Rehabilitation of the disabled held recently at Nasrapur, there are about 250 to 300 thousand blind and deaf, 500 to 600 thousand orthopaedically handicapped and 2,500 to 3,000 thousand mentally retarded. Thus India may well have anywhere between 3 to 4 million handicapped children. And one ought to realize that ordinarily 80% or more of our handicapped should be residing in rural areas. Even this figure does not include such categories as the emotionally disturbed, children with specific learning disabilities and the like. The finding, though tentative, is a grim pointer towards the cry for help which should force us to extend rehabilitation services to the handicapped in rural areas. In an era which has seen tremendous upsurge and advance in technological and medical science, the facilities for the disabled seem to have made only little perceptible change. Services for the handicapped specifically in rural areas are far from being adequate and whatever little is available is mainly because of contributions made by voluntary bodies. Government services as at present constituted aim at prevention of disability. Added to this is absolute lack of availability of trained personnel in our country. Thus with such a massive problem we should have an integrated approach in developing educational and training programmes for the disabled. It seems to us that paramedical staff is needed in greater numbers for meeting the widespread needs. Even though the year 1980 will witness the completion of a century during which formal attempts at educating and rehabilitating handicapped persons have been made in this country, we ought …