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Case Study

Vikash

Rs. 2,354,700 awarded over one year to Vikash

Vikash IN PAGE

Children with disabilities (CWDs) in many parts of the developing world are still largely isolated from mainstream society. In India, while some CWDs in urban areas have access to education, assistive devices and therapeutic services, the large numbers living in rural areas have little or no access to such services. Their families are mostly unaware of how to manage their disability and of the possible schemes and programmes that can be accessed from the Government.

The Government has initiated efforts at inclusive education through community-based multipurpose rehabilitation workers (MRWs) but this has had limited success as such workers are unable to understand all forms of disability. Schools lack materials or equipment and in many cases even proper access for CWDs or trained staff to assist them. These issues are accentuated in rural settings.

Vikash, an organisation based in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, has several years of experience of working with children and adults with disabilities. Established in 1986, it has a long record of work with leprosy patients. Vikash undertakes an approach which believes that communities are key partners in the change process, and that development of local capacities is a key component for community-based assistance to children with disabilities.

Supported by PHF, Vikash has begun work in 12 gram panchayats (local representative bodies) in the Gop block of Puri District, Odisha. Eight hundred children with disabilities have been identified and will be covered during the course of the project. The PHF assistance will help them cover the entire block with services. The strategy involves placing MRWs in the gram panchayatsalong with a team of therapists comprising experts on visual, hearing, physical and mental disabilities. Therapists develop a plan for each child covering therapy, care and management, and maintain periodic contact with the children. The MRWs follow this up with daily visits to the children, monitor the plan and ensure that the mother or guardian is following up with the home support elements of the plan. Each of the children identified will also be linked up with government programmes to enable them to access their entitlements.

With almost 100 per cent coverage of a development unit, the project will be able to inform policy on how a structured intervention based and evolved with the community can address the development of children with disabilities in a rural setting.