Dr Roma Kumar, Clinical Psychologist and Senior Consultant at the Institute of Child Health at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, talks about how siblings of a child with a condition also need care and empathy and what may be the emotional turmoil for such a sibling, as a child and often even as an adult.
What is the positive and negative impact of a child with disability or a serious health condition on the brothers and sisters?
The quality of the life of family members, as well as of the…
Dr Prakash C. Gupta, Director of Healis-Sekhsaria Institute of Public Health, has researched public health in India extensively over decades and shares with us his valuable opinions on tobacco use and cessation. Scroll down to sign the pledge The Age when it all begins Even when it may be difficult to ascertain the age in which people start smoking, the mean age of initiating tobacco use in any form in India is determined at 17.8 years: 18 for males, 17.1 for females. For smoking, it is 17.9 (…
In March this year, in a landmark move, the Indian Lok Sabha passed a resolution in favour of those with mental illness. Mr.Amrit Bakhshy, President of Schizophrenia Awareness Association and a caregiver himself lists down some salient points. The Indian Mental Healthcare Act 2017 strives to rectify years of wrongdoing against those who have a mental illness hallenged and also overturns, in the process, the archaic Section 309 of the Indian Penal Code (which criminalises attempted suicide).…
Amba Salelkar, a Chennai-based legal expert and disability rights activist, urges that the Government take steps to amend the laws relating to property rights, and introduce safeguards to ensure that persons with disabilities are not discriminated. Persons with disabilities who are most likely to have problems when it comes to property are those who face greater restrictions in participation on account of impairments that affect their ability to understand, judge and communicate decisions…
Mrs Neera Chawla, Director of Muskaan, an NGO which strives to empower adults with disabilities, talks about their employment programmes and how they try to make inclusion a reality. What categories of disabilities does Muskaan work with? What are the programmes you offer? We primarily work with adults who have intellectual disabilities and multiple disabilities. We have a few cases of Autism also. We mostly have adult training programmes, which are ascertained according to the different…
Vishaal Nityanand, a young filmmaker, ploughed his own money and full commitment to make Life Flows On, a movie on people with dementia and their caregivers, in order to raise awareness and understanding about the condition that he feels is callously neglected and overlooked in India. Read his interview. You have written and directed the film ‘Life Flows On’ that is dedicated to people with dementia and caregivers. Could you tell us a little about it? Life Flows On deals with three dementia…
New research brings us closer to the cause of Multiple Sclerosis. A new study suggests that high levels of the protein Rab32 disrupt key communications involving mitochondria. The disruption causes these "cellular batteries" to misbehave, leading to the toxic effects seen in the brain cells of people with multiple sclerosis. The new study is the work of researchers from the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom and the University of Alberta in Canada. They report their findings in the…
The Independent Living Program, an offshoot of Arunima, one of India’s first assisted living centres for teenagers and adults with autism, provides services and support to people with higher functioning autism to independence and dignity. In conversation with Aparna Das, founder director of Arunima. A few years ago, you set up Arunima, one of India’s first assisted living centres for teenagers and adults with autism. And now recently, you extended its vision to launch a new initiative, The…
The heartwarming documentary Raising the Bar directed by Onir and presented by e.motion21 is about six young individuals from Australia with Down syndrome attending the World Down Syndrome Congress in Chennai. An interview with Karina Posanzini, CEO of e.motion21. 1. The documentary movie Raising the Bar has won awards and is doing the film festival circuit. Tell us about the movie and how did the Indian-Australian collaboration come about? Raising The Bar highlights the…
