Mysuru:  “There are lot of facilities for the disabled these days and the government is thinking of providing more services. However, more than the medical treatment it is through counselling that one needs to treat the people with disabilities,” said State Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities V.S. Basavaraju.

He was speaking after inaugurating the 53rd Annual Day celebrations of All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) at the Knowledge Park auditorium in the institute premises here yesterday.

He said that the biggest support need in disability sector for rehabilitation is not so much for the children but the mothers.

“Unless we don’t equip mothers and support them, they continue to suffer. Under Rashtriya Bal Swastya Karyakram (RBSK) of the Government of India, screening of the disabilities had been happening but the actual service to the child has not been available. There is a critical gap as we are failing at giving advice to the parents as to where to send the child and what sort of support the child requires,” he said.

Hence, it is more important to train the people who take care of the disabled than training the latter themselves. Even though there are sufficient rules and laws for the disabled, it has not been possible to give them proper justice, he regretted.

The role of institutions like AIISH is very vital and it should play the role of technological leader by working effectively and efficiently using technology as the vision to reach the maximum number of people with disability in the country, he said.

In the next five to ten years the department is ready to go a long way as there are plenty of human, financial and infrastructural resources in the State. Hence, the institution should collaborate with local medical colleges and NGOs to provide aid and assistance to the needy. Only then can it have an impact, opined Basavaraju.

Director General of Administrative Training Institute (ATI)  Dr. Kapil Mohan said that in the report published by AIISH it is a matter of grave concern to see that nearly 2.67 per cent of the population in Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Mandya have hearing disability. The extension of research conducted in AIISH should reach larger population and interaction with real life problems should be the idea, he added.

The ‘Newborn Screening Card’ should act like an immunisation card, which should reach the whole population. Even though the role of technology today is enabling us to save time, the challenge is that they are newly introduced and the products which are newly developed are pricey.

These technological instruments to determine medical cases should be made affordable and manpower should be trained to use the equipment, he said.

On the occasion, students who have been conferred with Ph.D and those who had served the institution and retired were felicitated. AIISH Director Dr. S.R. Savithri, Technical Service Department Head Prof.N. Sridevi and others were present.

Newborn Screening Card

Newborn Screening Card which facilitates the screening of newborn children to determine the disability at the early stages was released on the occasion of the 53rd Annual Day. Also, Newborn Screening Centres at the King George’s Medical University, Lucknow and Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College of Bhagalpur was launched through video conference from the AIISH campus.

Survey released: State Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities V.S. Basavaraju released the survey report on Communication Disorders that were undertaken by AIISH from 2012-14.The survey was conducted at Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Mandya districts and in Level IV (Phase 1),  a total population of 3,36,596 was surveyed. A total of 312 ASHA workers were trained and recruited for the survey .