Back Beat- Times of India, Lucknow, Tuesday, November 24, 1998, Page no.16 

Surmounting Odds with a smile

A knock at the door and a neatly dressed six-year-old girl opens the door. With an innocent smile on her face, she asks, “who do you want to meet?”

The warmth in her behavior and a courteous soft voice camouflaged her disability. As soon as she got the reply, she led the way to Dr. Krishna Dutt’s chamber and quickly returned with a glass of water for the visitor. The girl was being educated and trained at the “Centre for Slow Learners and Mental Health Care”, founded by Dr Dutt’s voluntary organization, Asmita (which means identity).

As the name Asmita implies, the Centre is virtually giving an identity to about 25 such children, while more than another 125 are waitlisted. Says Dr Dutt, “a survey by Asmita indicates that roughly between 5 to 10 percent children in the trans-gomti area of Lucknow are slow learners. Due to lack of awareness, such children can neither be educated nor trained in self-care. The social stigma attached to this problem further complicates their growth.”

A clinical psychologist at King George’s Medical College (KGMC), Lucknow, Dr Dutt is a ray of hope for the feeble minded children, virtually rejected by the society. “Slow Learners”, a recent psychological term, used for children with an average Intelligence Quotient (IQ) between 80 and 50. These children can be partly educated and trained in self-care. Tracing how it all began, Dr Dutt recalls, “these children’s parents used to bring their children for medical attention regularly at KGMC and after their children’s assessment, I used to tell them how to train and educate the kids.” He adds that once the parents were convinced that their children could be educated up to class VIII or so and also be trained for self-care, they began requesting him to open a Centre for Slow Learners as there was no specific institute for slow learners in the country.

Says Dr Dutt, “if slow learners are kept with normal kids they can develop an an inferiority complex and if kept with the severely mentally retarded children, they will realize that they are sub-normal.

So, Asmita planned the day-care institution called “A Centre for Slow Learners and Mental Health Care.”

“We educate and train children in a manner that they find interesting without any force. Education, anywhere should always be by choice and interest of the children and not thrust up to them either by teachers or by parents”, he continued.

Seminars and workshops are regularly conducted by Asmita to spread awareness among both parents and teachers. “Public schools in our country, unlike in America, do not have school psychologists who can measure the aptitude of the students and then guide them. Despite hard work, if a child does not perform well in class, he is sent for tutorial classes, instead of pulling yourself.”

“These children should actually be identified by schools but they have failed miserably so far”, Dr Dutt points out.

Talking about the reaction of parents toward these children, Dr Dutt says, “either the parents become overprotective or reject these children – both reactions are equally dangerous. These children should be treated normally or else their behavioral anomaly increases.”

“Paucity of finances is adding bitterness to what we enjoyed doing all these years”, says Dr. Dutt. The center gets a little money from the children and none other.

Author : Nisheeth Kumar

BACK