Click to play videoWhen they play, they don’t find any friends. When they laugh, they laugh alone. A special child’s life is a struggle everyday. But there’s hope too. In a special series God’s Own Children, CNN-IBN explores how with some sensitivity and awareness, life can indeed be made special for the differently-abled children.
Vaishali (Bihar): In a country where poverty is a curse, disability mired in poverty is a curse twice over. Life is difficult, society is unforgiving and circumstances are hardly, if ever, favourable.
Such are the destinies of visually challenged Bihar sisters Bindu and Bina, who have been rendered socially disabled by their community.
Bindu and Bina are two of Vaishali-based Mandal Paswan's four blind daughters and have never been to school.
Their father has been made to live with the dictum that if you are blind and belong to a backward caste, your destiny is written by the society.
“These girls run errands like washing dishes, helping in fields etc. It’s only then that their mother feeds them,” says Paswan.
Across rural India, the picture is equally dismal.
- Only 114 out of every 1,000 physically disabled children have attended school.
- In cities, the figure is 225 per 1,000.
- Only 47 children of every 1,000 mentally disabled children in villages have attended pre-school, compared to 142 per thousand in cities.
- For blind children, only 100 per 1,000 in rural India have access to schools.
- In cities, this figure is as high as 510.
According to the 2001 census, India is home to 73 lakh disabled men of whom over 40 lakh are illiterate.
Though Bindu and Bina’s lives is a shocking tale of neglect and they are learning to live with cruelty and constant humiliation, their father hasn't stopped dreaming
“I hope these girls get married, but who will be willing to take home girls who are considered a burden?” he asks.
Life for disabled children in India is hard, the society is cruel and the government callous. Do you know of disabled children who have been discriminated against or harassed? Do you know of disabled children who are winners? Write to us
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