WARM WELCOME: A.P. Shah, Chief Justice of Madras High Court, being greeted by a hearing impaired child at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf in Chennai on Sunday. — PHOTO: S.S.KUMAR

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Government should implement special programmes for hearing and speech impaired children to give them inclusive education, said A. P. Shah, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, on Sunday.

Paramedical support staff could be used for tasks such as identification and screening of the hearing and speech disabled, especially in rural areas, he said at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the Madras Association of the Deaf.

According to the 2001 census, there were 22 million disabled persons in India, which amounted to 2.13 per cent of the total population. About 75 per cent of them lived in rural areas. Despite a strong legal framework for enforcing their rights, their lives were handicapped by social, cultural and attitudinal factors.

Disability was a social constraint and efforts should be made to bring a sense of equality and belonging to the disabled, he added.

According to the 2001 census, there were 16.5 lakh disabled in Tamil Nadu, out of which the hearing disabled constituted two lakh, V.K. Jayakodi, Special Commissioner for the Disabled, said.

The Government had opened 20 pre-schools and 11 government schools for the hearing impaired. Ten early intervention centres had recently been inaugurated in various districts. The special allowance for a normal person marrying a hearing impaired person had been increased to Rs 20,000. Special camps were being conducted in rural areas to identify the disabled, he added.

The Government should help to set up a computer learning centre for the deaf, E.K. Jamal Ali, organising secretary of the celebrations, said. The Election Commission should issue separate ID cards for hearing-impaired persons and the rules for voting by such persons should be explained to polling personnel, he added.

S.S. Krishnamurthy, founder of the Madras Association of the Deaf, and K. Vijayakumar, chairman, Tamil Nadu State Federation of the Deaf, were felicitated at the celebrations.

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