CBR for School Children?

Rayadurgam arasimham, Consultant (Vocational Rehab and Livelihood Programmes), Chennai CBR defies definition. Its simplicity and complexity have led to confusion about what CBR means. The simplicity of CBR has to do with its history of starting with the delivery of primary rehabilitation therapy to people with disabilities in their communities. The complexity of CBR is the result of the current concept that CBR programmes should be multi-sectoral (or multi-disciplinary) so that they can provide assistance in all of the areas which are central to improvement of the quality of life of people with disabilities. This complexity recognizes the need for close coordination, collaboration and cooperation between governmental and non-governmental organizations of all types and at all levels. The basic concept inherent in the multi-sectoral approach to CBR is the decentralization of responsibility and resources, both human and financial, to community-level organizations. According to Einar Helander, an internationally recognized expert CBR is a strategy for enhancing the quality of life of disabled people by improving service delivery, by providing more equitable opportunities and by promoting and protecting their human rights. The general perception about CBR is that it is a quick, cheap episodic distribution of some appliances for persons with disabilities (PWD). Many governmental as well as non government agencies, with all good intentions to rehabilitate PWD (Persons With Disability), resort to quick fix solutions, with no long-lasting impact in the community. Rehabilitation, considered as functional restoration, can be achieved only by empowering the PWD as well by enriching their community. It amounts to development of the community as a whole, empowering the PWD achieve their complete potential, enabling them to integrate into the fabric of the community and make decisions for themselves and dealing with physical, emotional, social and architectural barriers within the community. Empowering the disabled persons involves medical, social, vocational and educational inputs. It cannot be gainsaid that the children in rural areas face several constraints in accessing education and vocational training. It is more so for those with disabilities. Accomplishing this involves creation of awareness in the community regarding disability, value of disability prevention, and rehabilitation methods. It is of prime importance to inspire the community and recruit volunteers for this task. The volunteers need to be trained to identify and intervene appropriately to deliver rehabilitation services in the community. As Volunteers gain expertise in managing 70% of disability problems, they will also encounter 30% of the difficult problems related to disability, which they are not able to deal with and solve within the community. The Institutional Rehabilitation should take care of this with its professional competence and availability of related special skills. These links help the CBR workers (local volunteers) to deal with difficult problems, learn from them, and thereby become confident in the whole process of CBR through their interactions with disabled people, families and community as well as trainers from secondary and tertiary centres. CBR is organized in different ways in different communities. Certain principles however remain common. One of the major processes involves identification of leaders in the community. The word leader is to be understood not only in political context but in the sense of opinion makers such as Panchayat Leaders, teachers, merchants, Anganwadi workers and other non elected leaders including Non Profit Organizations and service clubs functioning in the area. Components of CBR The CBR activities are carried out by qualified professionals. It is not shirking responsibility of rehabilitation intervention, nor is it a cost saving technique, but a way of advocacy and enabling participation of the community in taking care of its PWD. In the context of School children, the management lies in two parts. It should however be kept in mind that different disabilities cause different types of challenges and every PWD is different, not only in their personality make up but the impact of impairment is also different, challenging the professional

to resort to wide variety of solutions. Managing children in class rooms, teaching them and also motivating them to participate in school activities is the least of them all. The second and the most important group is the school dropout. The Muthukumaran Committee on Education of the Children in Tamilnadu (2007) has found that more than 5.22% of children drop out at 8th standard level and 42.55% at High School level for non-disabled children. No information is available for the children with disabilities (CWD). However considering the high illiteracy level of PWD at as much as 80.2% (73.9% to 97.2% for different disabilities), the dropout rates for the cwd is very high. As a concerned community of school teachers it is imperative that alternate skill development facilities to help this group of dropouts acquire a reasonable living is created. Community Based Vocational Training (CBVT) is one such concept. The HSE had the opportunity to develop the concept while working in Ahmedabad at Pirana in 1989. The CBVT programmewas further fine-tuned. A survey after one year of training, revealed that over 83% of those trained were earning, 8% were continuing education and others were not engaged in any economic activity. This high level of percentage is crucial considering that even the Vocational Rehabilitation Centres for the Handicapped (Govt. of India) with their proactive approach could reach only 31% of rehabilitation and the Special Employment Exchanges a paltry 1 to 2% registered with them. Since then several such programmes were conducted in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka assisting the PWD enter economic activities, either alone or in group employment schemes. CBVT Objectives: The main objective is to provide vocational training suited to local employment market in one of the operations in a job profile through short term skill development program. Training in these skills is best conducted by community members who, with minimal assistance, can easily transfer their skills and knowledge to people with disabilities. The community has resources and is capable of creating of micro and macro income-generation opportunities and obtaining financial credit through existing systems. More than 500 modules of such short term (not exceeding three months) skill development courses have been identified and have to be carried out in CBVT programmes depending on the local employment market. Another issue is the equipment of the present teachers to deal with CWD. The Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI), a Statutory Body, monitors the manpower development, standardization and registration of rehabilitation professionals in the field of disabilities. As per the information available, out of the 383 recognized institutions, 271 (70.8%) are in State Capitals or large cities. The rest are also in the urban areas but in district headquarters or its outskirts. Hence adequate services are not yet available to train the teachers on a large scale. With an effort to reach the unreached and to equip the current teachers in the regular schools, the RCI has introduced online foundation course for education of CWD. (Foundation Course on Education of Children with Disabilities - Online) The scheduling of the course could be suited to individual teacher. Details can be accessed at http://www.rehabcouncil.nic.in CBR is both simple and complex and in school situation, the community from costudent to family, leadership and society at large is totally involved. Services, especially vocational, are available in the rural areas also for the PWD. There are weaknesses and constraints in delivery but could be accessed. Our aim should be to assimilate the CWD to live an independent and inclusive life through appropriate teaching methodologies for those attending the schools and organize CBVT programmes in addition to the present educative and therapeutic services rendered in the CBR. Education is not a constraint, only learning abilities are. Amantramaksharam Nasti; Nasti Moolamanaushadham: Ayogyoh Purusho Nasti: Yojakastatra Durlabhaha Every letter a Mantra; Every root a medicine; No person is totally useless; User is always hard to find: