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Law mooted to bring disabled into mainstream

CHENNAI: A legislation to make school education inclusive of the disabled in mainstream institutions was one of the collectives at the end of an international workshop on disability here on Sunday.

A forum of disability experts, special educators and therapists also argued for more teeth to the Persons with Disabilities Act, awareness campaigns on popularising genetic counselling, inoculation against infections like Rubella and meeting antenatal nutritional needs as a means of preventing vertical transfer of disability, and promoting networking among parents and professionals.

The two-day second international conference on early intervention in mental retardation was organised by the Madhuram Narayanan Centre for Exceptional Children.

“After having put in place key legislation and framed welfare policies for the disabled population in the country, the challenge for the country now lies in their effective implementation”, said Veena Chhotray, secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

A school-readiness programme that seeks to equip children with disability for mainstream education would be launched shortly by the National Trust, set up by the legislative mandate of 1999, Trust representative Poonam Natarajan said.

The programme would interlink the 0-3 year phase of early intervention and the 3-6 years school-readying period to facilitate mainstreaming the primary education of disabled children and bring private-public schools around to the opinion that “diversity in the classroom will enrich everyone”.

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