As Joseph James (name changed) spoke over the phone, one could hear in the background loud thuds.
A carpenter, he said, was at work repairing a door lock knocked down by his 21-year-old autistic daughter who has turned increasingly violent after being confined to house for over a year now due to the pandemic. The situation is as bleak or worse in households across the State as nearly 250 special schools tending to about 25,000 children continue to remain shut.
“Without the familiar environs of their schools and the company of their understanding teachers and friends, these children are at sea. Both children and parents are a a frustrated lot, left only to each other’s company. Recently when a video of a parent allegedly beating up his mentally challenged child went viral everyone blamed the father. While he deserves to be blamed, I can imagine how he may have lost his control,” said Mr. James.
In one of the recent meetings of the Parents’ Association for Intellectually Disabled Kerala (PAID Kerala), a mother from Mannarkkadu was in tears describing how her increasingly violent autistic child was beating up his younger brother forcing her to stay home unable to open her bakery.
Hardly a substitute
“Online classes can hardly be a substitute for actual classrooms for these children even as many families are slipping down the quicksand of poverty as parents are forced to stay home at the cost of their jobs,” said K.M. George, State President of PAID Kerala.
Nirmala Sadan, a Muvattupuzha-based special school, had recently opened the doors of its hostel to 10 such children as the father of an adopted autistic child was diagnosed with cancer and the mother had to be by his bedside. As lodging him alone without company posed a problem, the school management took in another nine children.
“There have been instances when many of our children had to be admitted to mental hospitals owing to the psychological complications of living in claustrophobic conditions. A meeting of parents was an heart-wrenching experience as most parents were in tears sharing their despair,” said Sr. Rosebel, principal of the school.
There are significant gaps in online classes offered by special schools as many parents are either illiterate or too impoverished to buy smartphones or renew data plans leaving many children slipping through the cracks.
“Attending schools brought an order to the lives of these children and helped them channelise their creativity. But that now stands disrupted and opening special schools by bringing in children in batches in strict compliance with COVID-19 protocol remains the sole solution,” said Susheela Kuriachan, vice-chairperson, Association of the Intellectually Disabled (AID), a combine of special schools.
Mable Davis, a clinical psychologist, said that special children missing their regular therapy sessions might regress, making it increasingly difficult to manage them. The anxiety of an already stressed parents would further complicate it, she said.
