Apart from their ebullience and a fierce reaction to any form of pity, there's something else that's common to both Sushant and Vijay. This is Dr Sudarshan Vaid and his brainchild-Suniye, an association of parents with hearing impaired children. Twelve years after this general physician (he calls himself a "table Marxist") launched it on May 20, 1988, Suniye is today one of the very few such associations where parents of handicapped children can find a voice for their dreams and despairs.
Says the good doctor: "I know the pains of fathering a hearing impaired child. We could not detect our son Sushant's problem till he was about two years old. But we were lucky to be in Delhi and had access to the best medical aid. Today, my son is as normal as any other child-he can talk in Hindi and English and is now awaiting the results for his B.Com second year exams." Suniye, he says, was born out of his anxiety as a parent: "I can never forget what a senior doctor in a Delhi hospital told me. He simply said, 'Sir, your son will never speak. The maximum we can do is to rehabilitate him.' This is the level of sensitisation in our society. But we never gave up and insisted that our son will go to a normal school, just like his elder brother and sister. That has shown us results. If he had gone to a special school, he would still be communicating exclusively through sign language. This is no way to make them self-sufficient."
And that's Suniye's purpose-to help enrol the child in a normal school and give them a chance to grow like any other child. Already more than 2,000 children have benefited from it. Says Sudarshan, "I believe in inclusive education. We are only instrumental in giving them the much-needed push. And today, we have many success stories. Our students have excelled in academics-many of them have successfully finished their studies and are now pursuing careers in computers and many other creative fields." Adds he: "Only 10 per cent of our handicaps go to special schools and the rest are thrown on the roads. I know it is difficult for most parents. But through Suniye, I want to tell all parents that an impaired child is not a curse."
Dr Vaid today is a father figure for scores of children who have successfully established themselves in the mainstream. What started as an informal meeting of a handful of parents in 1985-86 now has a well-equipped support school in Delhi. Suniye has a floating membership of about 200 parents who, after enrolling, benefit from the various services like speech and language development courses, counselling classes and other support programmes. "My son was two years old when we started Suniye. Today the youngest child coming to us is six months old. This is the difference we have made on the psyche of parents. Many parents, after seeing our efforts, got their child transferred to a normal school from a special one," says Sudarshan with some pride.
With support from various organisations like the New Delhi YMCA, Suniye is today completely self-sufficient. All the funds are generated through donations and by advertisements in their in-house magazine Dhun. As part of their efforts, Suniye also holds regular theatre workshops to instill confidence into these young ones. "My biggest challenge is to change the mindset of parents. I also have to sensitise the government and people at large." The aim is to emphasise that these children aren't born beyond redemption. That impairments can be overcome. Suniye can be contacted at: 1/4992, Loni Road, Shahdara, Delhi, phone: 2291817, 2111817.