The first thing that strikes you as you enter the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC)-run Education and Training Centre for children with different abilities at Vashi, is a message imprinted on its colourful walls: ‘No pity.’ At first glance, the five-storey centre appears to be like any other institute, nestled in tranquil surroundings. As you explore each of its therapeutic sections, you encounter smiling faces everywhere — an indication of the patience of professionals who deal with people with disabilities every day, helping them integrate into the mainstream.
Over the years, the centre has added the gamut of prevention and rehabilitation services, and is aptly known by its acronym, ‘etc’. It caters to the education, therapeutic and rehabilitative needs of newborns, infants, children and adults with hearing, intellectual, learning and multiple disabilities. “etc stands for all disabilities, all age groups, all services, all under one roof,” says Dr. Varsha Bhagat, Director. etc does not charge fees; even the paramedical facilities and therapies are free. The centre also makes available uniforms, learning materials and appliances for free. In terms of education, the centre conducts remedial sessions, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech, language and play therapies. There are also vocational courses that include placements for students, and awareness programmes for children with disabilities. “The programmes help them know their rights and empower them to live life with dignity, which is the vision of etc,” says Dr. Bhagat.
At the centre, differently-abled children get to play and learn with their peers. “By not sending such children to school, parents were not only depriving them of education but also the joy of being a child. etc is playing a key role in the life of these children by providing them the necessary services and support,” says Dr. Bhagat.
The idea for the institute came from a survey conducted in 2006-07 by the NMMC’s Education Department under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, which found that Navi Mumbai had a significant number of persons with disability. There was also a need to utilise the 3 per cent budget reserved for the progress of the underprivileged, towards the rehabilitation of people with different abilities.
Initially, a Centre for Education and Training for Children with Hearing Impairment was started in the basement of the Municipal School, Rabale, in 2007. However, parents of special children expressed the need to expand the services to other types of disabilities, and the ‘etc’, or Education and Training Centre for Children with Different Abilities, was started in 2008. The centre provided educational and rehabilitative facilities at Airoli and at the Rabale centre.In 2009, the centre extended its services to adults with different abilities and began providing educational and rehabilitative facilities to people with multiple disabilities.
In 2012, NMMC procured land opposite Vashi railway station, to fulfill its aim of building an advanced resource centre.Some of the schemes initiated by NMMC include funding for cochlear implant surgery, scholarships, financial aid for home-bound persons with disability, free aids and appliances, train and bus pass schemes. Parents get a stipend for class observation and financial help to attend parent-training programmes.A proud NMMC Commissioner, Tukaram Mundhe says etc is the only institute of its kind in the country. “NMMC is the first and only corporation in India to set up a department for persons with disabilities. We would like etc to become a model in the country and scale higher. There are plans to start sub-centres.”Parents and caregivers, too, heap praise on the centre. Laxman Kadam, a resident of Koparkhairane, has been bringing his grandson, Swagat Kadam every day for the past one year. “My son could not walk. After coming here, there has been remarkable progress,” he says.P. Vaishali, says the teachers and staff are “very cooperative”. She too has been bringing her son, P. Raj, who suffers from a motor disorder and speech difficulties, for the past three years. “There has been remarkable improvement and he enjoys coming here,” she says.
Therapists, on their part, say they observe improvements in the children’s socialisation skills among other things. “Children share a very emotional relationship with their teachers and therapists. Their socialisation improves drastically as the intervention process starts. The children are taken for educational visits and other co-curricular events and competitions, where they also get to interact with others,” says Dr. Bhagwan Dandekar, Occupational Therapist at the centre.etc has had various awards coming its way: the Prime Minister’s Award for ‘Best Practice in Public Administration, 2011’, the State Award for ‘Best Institute Working for Persons with Disability, 2013’, and the SKOCH Platinum Award in the Education category.
But more than the accolades it has received, the initiative has encouraged other local government bodies to move in a similar direction. This, to Dr. Bhagat, is the most heartening aspect of the journey. “If this becomes a policy to be followed by all local bodies, it will be in the nature of true service,” she says. In the same breath, she is grateful for the support etc has received from the civic authorities, public representatives and citizens.
The writer is a freelancer with The Hindu
