National institute to help handicapped

Gauhati, May 28: The Union Government to establish a comprehensive national institute for each major category of handicapped persons, the Vice-President, Mr. G.S. Pathak, said here to-day. The institute will undertake research, train key personnel, and in the process, impart education and training to a limited number of persons. Mr. Pathak said the first school for partially deaf children had been set up in Hyderabad as part of the national institute. He regretted that response to the incentives offered by the Union Government to physically handicapped students had “not been very encouraging.” Mr. Pathak was inaugurating the Fourth Congress of the All India Federation of the Deaf here to-day. Mr. Pathak called for an all-out effort for the total removal of deafness to enable the disabled enjoy life as normal persons. With the high degree of sophistication attained in surgical treatment coupled with rapid advance in science and technology, this could be achieved in the near future, he said. Mr. Pathak said while the more robust among the deaf might survive the abysmal silence of their lives without damage, it might well lead to mental depression and the development of certain anti-social complexes in sensitive cases. “It is only natural, therefore, that the plight of the deaf should engage the attention not only of medical specialists and scientists, but also of social workers, educationists and psychologists all over the world,” he said.