Cutting across party lines, Rajya Sabha members on Thursday took up the cause of children with dyslexia — a learning disorder — asserting that the disability should not be treated as mentally retarded and called for a nationwide campaign to detect such kids to ensure their earlier treatment.
Dyslexia is the most common learning disability (lD), and nearly 70 per cent-80 per cent of students diagnosed with lD have deficits in reading. It is characterized by a core deficit in reading that manifests despite normal intelligence, equal opportunity and adequate instruction.
BJP member Tarun Vijay pointed out that the issue should not be seen through politics and that dyslexic children are not treated as mentally retarded.
Echoing similar views, Jaya Bachchan (Samajwadi Party) and Anand Sharma (Congress) said such children should not be treated as mentally retarded as they can be cured if the problem is detected early. They also sought launching of a nationwide campaign to detect children with dyslexia.
Bachchan also pointed out that some members could be dyslexic but are not aware of it.
Intervening in the matter following objections by certain members on categorising dyslexic children as mentally retarded, Chairman Hamid Ansari suggested, “I think if the vocabulary is to be corrected, the concerned members should formally write to the government and draw the attention to the issue.”
Earlier, replying to supplementaries, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot said, the Government has set up committees of doctors and state ministers to identify disabilities like dyslexia and treat it early.
The incidence of dyslexia in India is believed to be 15 per cent.
Two primary reasons why dyslexia remains undiagnosed in India are is because of lack of sufficient awareness amongst school teachers and parents and absence of appropriate standardized screening and assessment tools in Indian languages.
For helping such kids, National Brain Research Centre, Manesar in support with the Department of Science and Technology among others have recently developed “Dyslexia Assessment for languages of India’ (DAlI), a package that contains screening tools for school teachers and assessment tools for psychologists in Indian languages to identify dyslexia.