‘Rehabilitation of congenially disabled children born in families affected by the Bhopal Gas Tragedy is possible through regular therapy sessions’: the Chingari Trust
The Chingari Trust has worked for seven years for the rehabilitation of 2nd and 3rd generation children born to parents and grandparents affected by the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy and the ongoing water contamination.
Currently, the Trust has registered more than 700 children. Approximately 200 children attend the Rehabilitation Centre daily to benefit from services including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, special education, sports sessions, supplementary nutrition provisions and transportation facilities – all free of charge.
“Our department is involved in providing physiotherapy to these children and has witnessed unbelievable progress. One third of children who were initially not able to sit have now started sitting properly. Approximately 40 children who were initially able to stand but could not walk are now walking freely. There has been tremendous progress in about fifteen percent of children who were not even able to sit but after the therapy are now able to run around. I hope and believe that definitely with the help of physiotherapy, we can bring improvement in the lives of these children.”
- Sanjay Gaur, Physiotherapist
”An average 30 children with autism, behavioural problems, sensory disorders and developmental delays are treated here. A vast improvement in behavioural change has been noticed in these children. Four autistic children have started going to the normal schools. Those children who could not chew their food are now able to chew and eat normally.”
- Poonam Gaur, Occupational Therapist
“At present there are 25 children with us who were initially not able to produce any kind of vocal sound are now able to speak simple sentences and 12 children started talking fluently. Out of 24 hearing impaired children in our department who neither heard nor produced any kind of vocal sound in the past, as of today 10 of them have started listening and speaking.”
– Ms. Nausheen Khan, Speech Therapist
“There were more than one hundred children who were not able to socialize with others before coming to Chingari but now they had started socializing intermixing with others. About sixty children who were having issues in reading and writing are now able to write and understand. Our biggest achievement is that now twenty one special children of Chingari has started going to normal school.”
- Kanchan Dixit, Special Educator
“We had provided assistance to more than seven hundred children registered with Chingari in getting pension, disable certificate, railway concession pass, medical check-up and also have helped them in getting benefits from various governmental and non-governmental schemes from time to time. Every Saturday we have been organizing a community meeting in a gas affected area to raise awareness about disability and precautions to be taken during pregnancy.”
- Community Health Workers
“We are really happy that so many children coming to Chingari have shown positive changes in their lives. Children who were not able to sit properly had started running, who had not utter a word from their mouth have started talking. But at the same time we feel sad about the fact that we have been able to provide these facilities to only two hundred children and that more than five hundred children registered with Chingari Trust and many more such children born in the gas and water affected families who need this medical care facilities are still left out. Government should take complete responsibility of rehabilitation of these children and ensure that proper care is provided to them.”
Rashida Bee and Champa Devi Shukla, Co-Founders and Managing Trustees of the Chingari Trust
