Giving a ray of hope to poor children with hearing impairment, a Parliamentary panel has asked the Government to make the cochlear implant surgeries affordable under its national scheme to bring more beneficiaries under its ambit.
Cochlear implants receive a sound, convert it into electrical stimuli and send these impulses directly to the auditory nerve, thereby giving hearing impaired children the chance to connect to the world of sounds and noises.
Headed by MP Ramesh Bias, the panel's recommendation follows observation that in 2014-2015, 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 only 38, 300 and 276 cochlear implant surgeries respectively were conducted across the country under the government scheme--Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of Aids/Appliances (ADIP) Scheme, which is far less than the target of 500 Implant Surgeries per year.
Implemented under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, under the scheme, all costs are borne by the Government to cover the cost of implant, surgery and post-operative rehabilitation.
According to the provisions of the ADIP Scheme, the income ceiling for the beneficiaries is Rs 15,000 per month for 100 per cent concession and Rs 15001 to Rs 20,000 per month for 50 per cent concession.
The Committee in its report submitted to Parliament recently noted that the ADIP Scheme contains a provision to provide Cochlear Implant for 500 children per year with a ceiling of Rs 6 lakh per unit including cost of surgery and post-operative rehabilitation.
The Committee also felt that for a person with an annual income of Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 2.4 lakh bearing 50 per cent cost of the surgery was almost impossible, restricting the targeted beneficiary to avail the benefit. Moreover, the target of 500 implant surgeries was very less for the entire country which unfortunately is also not met, the panel said.
“As a result, waiting list of such patients keeps increasing,” said the report.
The Committee also recommended that the department formulate detailed guidelines to ensure post surgery follow-up and functioning of the implant, speedy repair of device in case of a fault — technical or otherwise — hospitals and clinics registered for conducting the implant surgery have well-trained doctors and staff and early detection of hearing disability.
A latest study at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (MPI CBS) in leipzig and the University Medical Centre Dresden has noted that when deaf children get their implants, they learn words faster than those with normal hearing. “Consequently, they build up certain word pools faster”, said Niki Vavatzanidis, first author of the underlying study and scientist at MPI CBS and the University Medical Centre Dresden.
Hearing impairment or loss of hearing is one of the most prevalent congenital disabilities in India, with an estimated 8 in 1,000 infants born with moderate to profound hearing impairment. Over 27,000 children are born deaf every year in India.
Experts have batted for Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS), a medical procedure for early detection of congenital hearing loss. While developed countries have made the UNHS mandatory, India still has not included it in the list of mandatory health screening procedures for newborns.
In the absence of a screening program, parents are still dependent to identify hearing loss in children through language learning and comprehension over a period of time. Such delays cost children up to 24 months of precious time of cognitive development, according to experts.