I am delighted to be here today and to interact with all of you. My special greetings to the children, parents, Principal, teachers, and all the members of the 'Sanjay School'.

A mother's love for as special child has to be transformed into a big societal mission of empowering the child to live a near-normal life. I am told that the School is conducting various programmes such as "Shruti" for hearing impaired, "Sanjeevani" for mentally challenged and "Shraddha" for slow learners. I am happy to know that through the programme "Suraksha", the School is imparting vocational training to the children and preparing them to become creative and productive citizens. The holistic rehabilitation of these children involves a multi-sectoral approach and creation of a condition in which they can fully realize their potential and live their lives as independently and usefully as possible.

Indomitable Spirit

I consider that the perception of disability lies in the mind. Surely a person with a pure and enlightened mind is a valuable citizen irrespective of whether he is physically disabled or not. The life of a differently challenged person can be enriched through creation of indomitable spirit in him. I would like to share one example of an individual who have excelled in his field with all the disabilities.

I would like to share one example of an individual who have excelled in his field with all the disabilities. I would like to explain an incident which took place in Rashtrapati Bhavan. On 27th November 2003. I met about 1000 differently challenged children, who were taking part in the Abilympics. They were extremely enthusiastic to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan and the environment gave them happiness. To that gathering, I recited a small poem, which runs like this:

We are all God's children,

Our minds are stronger than diamond.

We will win, win, win with our mighty will.

God is with us who can be against!

On hearing this, a boy from Iran by name Mustafa came to me, who didn't have both legs and was fitted with artificial limbs. He thrust a paper in my hand. He had written a beautiful poem titled "Courage", in Persian language. It reads like this:

Courage

I don't have legs.

My mind says: Don't weep, don't weep

For, I need not bow even in front of a King.

I was really moved by the positive thinking of that boy. It shows his courage to face the life with optimism. I wish all of you to carry this message to make your life meaningful.

Empowering a special child

Today, a special child who receives effective therapy, education and training has every hope of using his or her unique capacity to learn. Even some who are seriously mentally retarded can often master many self-help skills like cooking, dressing, doing laundry and handling money. For such children, greater independence and self-care may be the primary training goals. Other youngsters may go on to learn basic academic skills, like reading, writing and simple math. Many complete high school. Some may even earn college degrees. Like anyone else, their personal interests provide strong incentives to learn. Clearly, an important factor in developing a child's long-term potential for independence and success is early intervention. The sooner a child begins to receive help, the more opportunity for learning. Furthermore, because a young child's brain is still forming, scientists believe that early intervention gives children the better chance of developing their full potential. Even so, no matter when the child is diagnosed, it is never too late to begin the journey of a fulfilling life.

Parent involvement has also emerged as a major factor in treatment success. Parents work with teachers and therapists to identify the behaviours to be changed and the skills to be taught. Recognizing that parents are the child's earliest teachers, more programmes are beginning to train parents to continue the therapy at home. Research is beginning to suggest that mothers and fathers who are trained to work with their child can be as effective as professional teachers and therapists.

Cochlear Implant for Hearing Impaired

Cochlear implant helps the deaf and dumb individuals to regain near normal hearing/speaking capabilities. Basically it is by-passing the damaged inner ear portion by replacing its functions with an electronic system having external mike, speech processing circuit, transmitter and an receiver. The receiver is implanted below the ear. The receiver has an electrode which will be inserted into the cochlear portion of the ear. Speech processor processes the input audio signals and converts them into electrical signals in various channels. The transmitter transmits these signals to the implant's multi-channel electrode which terminates in various points of the cochlear. At a Hospital in Coimbatore, I saw children who could hear and converse after implanting and subsequent IT aided training. But in India we do not have Cochlear Implant manufacturing units. The cost of imported cochlear implant is around Rupees 7 lakhs which common man cannot afford. Series of development activities should be initiated to establish cochlear implant manufacturing capabilities in India with the objective of bringing down the cost of all components, surgery and post operative training to around Rupees 40 to 50 thousand, so that the real goal of a programme like "Shruti" is achieved.

Rehabilitation of a special person

Rehabilitation process should aim at enabling physically and mentally challenged persons to reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, psychological and/or social functional levels, thus providing them with the tools to change their lives towards a higher level of independence. Rehabilitation process has to include measures to provide and/or restore functions, or compensate for the loss or absence of a function or for a functional limitation. It should include a wide range of measures and activities from more basic and general rehabilitation to goal-oriented activities, for instance vocational rehabilitation.

The most important need is to enlist people as support group personnel who have love and passion for serving others. Any disorder in human faculty reduces the self esteem of the individual and increases the dependence on others. Our efforts must be to bring about a sense of equality amongst them through a conducive environment. We have to provide "equalization of opportunity" for persons with disabilities by providing seemingly simple, basic, and obvious services. Equality can be generated by training them to acquire certain skills and engage their minds in productive efforts to enable them to lead a normal life.

I feel this School has the potential to further expand the scope of its noble cause so that these special children who become empowered through education and vocational training, can not only get suitable placements for themselves, but also can become entrepreneurs and provide employment opportunity to other special persons. To realize this mega mission, concerted efforts of NGOs, grass-root democratic institutions, Self Help Groups, individual sponsors and government agencies are required. Particularly I would request all the people who have assembled here to have the courage that you can do it and you will win.

I wish you all success and happiness in your missions.

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