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Do you, as a thinking, responsible parent, do your bit towards teaching kids empathy for those with special needs? Being really inclusive yourself is the way forward.
3rd December was World Disability Day.
I am normally not a fan of specific days – I think we appreciate our moms everyday (esp. after I became a mom myself), are women every day of the year, etc. But in the case of different needs, the world in general knows little of the realities of the routine lives of some 21 million of our fellow countrymen and women.
At a conference I attended on the 2nd of December on the topic, I got to see the Indian Government stats on children with special needs.
Did you know that only 0.47% of those who are diagnosed as special needs make it through school? There is no reason for this except our mindsets, our inability to reach services (if they exist) to those in need.
Working with some kids, I realize that OUR attitudes are the disability. What can someone do?
We could:
Do we know it all? No. We do know that there is no cure for many conditions. When many people on the autism spectrum, with learning difficulties, with cerebral palsy have advanced our civilization (think about the likes of Stephen Hawking), WE would not want for these differences to go away! Selfish but hey, it works.
May the war on ignorance continue on – I hope the need for a World Disability Day fades away just as we fade away scaffolds and all our people walk towards independent, dignified, productive living.
Do share your relationship with any kind of a different need here in the comments, if you feel comfortable. Sharing makes a difference almost always!
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Published here earlier.
Image source: pixabay
Sangitha Krishnamurthi is a special educator, blogger and mother of three. Her interests include living a mindful and organic life as much as possible in addition to reading and writing about the reading. read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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