Focus on inclusive learning to overcome social bias
Bid to make regular schools friendly to disabled
Mumbai: As schoolchildren partied on Children's Day — birth anniversary of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru — yesterday with lively events, the children of Adapt, the former Spastics Society of India, too celebrated to reinforce their new mantra: inclusive education.
"For us inclusion means Dalit children, as well as children who are suffering cultural and social bias like the girl child, HIV positive child and the disabled child," Dr Mithu Alur, Founder Chairperson of Abled Disabled All People Together (Adapt), said.
Opportunity
She told Gulf News at her centre in Colaba, South Mumbai, that "we continuously strive to demonstrate how children with all disabilities can be educated through inclusive education so that they have the opportunity to be put into mainstream schools".
Adapt's centres in Colaba and Bandra serve more than 3,000 children. "We are now initiating a dialogue ... issues ... are now being addressed in policy documents." Adapt is organising a Dialogue in February in Goa to focus on developing countries facing systemic barriers in including children with disabilities.
