Calcutta Rescue’s Disability Project began in 2006 as a Learning Disability Project but its remit has grown to cover all disabilities in response to the growing demand for its services.
Disability in India carries a huge and visible stigma - it is not just a trial in a physical sense for the patient and family but an enormous social stigma as well. A disabled child is viewed as demonised and is therefore shunned by the community and, too often, by his/her own family. Shame stalks those unlucky enough to have been dealt the disability blow. Where poverty is rife, priority lies with the healthy - the breadwinner, the insurance policy for all. So, a disabled child or adult will be marginalized and left to fend for him/herself. Disability not only affects the patient’s chances of marriage but also affects other family members’ opportunities – disability is often seen as genetic or ‘catching’. The physical hardship disability brings is wide reaching – carers need to work to feed all family members, leaving the patient alone, isolated and, often, incapacitated.
This relatively new, multi faceted arm of CR’s medical care brings hope to around 120 patients. The Disability Project’s aim is to improve the physical, social, educational, economical, and mental well being of a challenged or disabled patient, decreasing their disability while raising their functional ability. The CR team wants to improve the quality of their patients’ daily lives, mainstreaming the patients into their community/society enabling them to be self-sufficient. They want them to be stimulated, make progress, garner a skill so that independence is within their grasp. Without such hope, what is the future for the disabled when the carer (often a parent or grandparent) is no longer there?
Disability beneficiaries are a very diverse population of children and adults who, for various reasons, face barriers as a result of being :
Their cases are well researched before appropriate assistance as follows is given :
In addition, CR provides some money and benefits covers all transportation costs and most hospital and residential school bills. All contribute to enabling and encouraging our disabled patients to become self-sufficient citizens.
