In a bid to bring special children in the mainstream with others, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has initiated a door-to-door-survey covering all households within its jurisdiction. In this, the civic body plans to map those children who are disabled, suffering from life-threatening diseases or else are intellectually challenged.
After the exercise which is expected to be completed in a few months, the NDMC plans to educate and impart life skills to them in its special school. “Documentation of this child-mapping exercise will help policy formulation. It will also proactively promote schooling. We have found that most of the children with special needs are kept outside schools. We want to break that and bring them at par with the normal children,” said Vidushi Chaturvedi, Director (Education), NDMC.
Besides, to encourage parents towards the importance of schooling, well before the child attains the age of six years, the civic body is also running Balwaaris in its area. “Under the Balwaaris scheme, the teachers are duty-bound to carry out door-to-door survey to ensure that no child below the age of six years is out of this system. On attaining the age of five years, these children are admitted into the formal schools of NDMC. The Balwaari teachers are trained to convince and even coax those parents, who are not motivated for whatever reasons to send their children into the Balwaaris, which provide not only an atmosphere of basic learning but also nutritious food, uniforms and toys as incentives,” added Chaturvedi.
Negating the allegation raised by some members of the council, the agency said that it is already working on a scheme to include every child in its area into its schools. “At the commencement of each academic session, teachers are sent by the principals to survey the area adjoining the respective school and bring to school any child found outside the school system. Anybody may approach the schools heads if they come across a child in the age group of six years to 14 years not admitted in any school. The NDMC 24x7 helpline is also available for this purpose,” she said.