Dinesh Kamath's news item 'Bengaluru civic body wants a replica of ETC to come up in its city' that was published in Newsband

Bengaluru civic body wants a replica of ETC to come up in its city

By Dinesh Kamath

NAVI MUMBAI: The Education, Training & Service Centre (ETC) for Persons With Different Abilities which the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) had come up with a long time back has impressed the Bengaluru civic body to such an extent that they want a similar organization to come up in the city of Bengaluru too.

The Bengaluru civic body was extremely impressed by ETC which catered for students who have special educational needs due to severe learning difficulties, physical disabilities or behavioral problems. They want in their city as well as in the state a similar structure which is specifically designed, staffed and resourced to provide the appropriate special education for children with different abilities.

NMMC’s ETC works on a principle to send students in mainstream schools after interventions in the school. The centre has grown to be one of the best and the most sought after in the state as important support for student with special needs.

Brihast Bengaluru Mahanagar Palika (BBMP) made in-depth enquiries about this institution. BBMP came up with various interesting information relating to ETC in Navi Mumbai. They became aware of the fact that Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) had become sensitized to the needs of special children and were determined to ground its foot firmly to usher the present and the future of special children. NMMC took up the project for the betterment of these children as a whole by setting up this centre that caters to the educational, vocational and therapeutic needs of special children. NMMC aims to ultimately help the special children beyond boundaries by setting up a resource centre that will offer all the information related to the disability and special children. NMMC came up with the facts that created the need for such a center in Navi Mumbai. These facts were (1) There were significant numbers of persons with disability in the area of Navi Mumbai. This developed an insight to work in the area of disability. (2) Special children need an array of special services On an average parents have to reserve an amount of Rs.7,000-10,000 per month for their special child to follow an ideal rehabilitation plan. It is apparent that this amount remains unaffordable to 90 % of the parent population. Through this initiative NMMC wished to give parents a complete relief from this financial burden by providing them education and paramedical facilities on free basis by setting up a center for persons with disability. (3) There is not much awareness regarding various issues related to persons with disability. In that case, there was the need of a center that would create the awareness in the society ultimately to reduce the rate of disability and also to sensitize general public to accept and respect persons with disability. (4) There were few NGO's working towards special education. However they faced some inherent limitations like restricted power to bring about necessary changes, funds, etc. These difficulties interfered in the services they provided and number of students they could admit. Being a local government body, NMMC overcame these hitches and provided barrier free services through developing a Centre for persons with disability. (5) A special child usually needs more than one treatment and therapies along with special education. It becomes unmanageable for the parents to wander through places with their special child. A one stop holistic Centre for PWDAs (Person with different abilities) planned by local government would ease out these pressures on the parents and save energy and money too. Such holistic Centre would facilitate internal discussions and better handling of the child thus facilitating faster progress in turn. (6) Education is the right of every child. Special child should be no exception. However they need special intervention and training. By setting up Special Centre wanted to bring all children with disability under the educable spectrum through the resource Centre. (7) Government runs various schemes and enacts different laws for the betterment of the special children. However most of the parents of these children /persons with disability are either not aware or do not find proper channel to avail these schemes. The resource Centre would act as a channel for the same purpose. (8) Three percent of the poor budget should be brought into optimal utilization by all government bodies to bring about enrichment in the life of PWDAs. It was determined to use this budget for the rehabilitation of the PWDAs through by setting up resource Centre.

All the facts mentioned above indicated a serious need to set up a Centre for special children and NMMC came up with ETC. It first started a Centre for education and training for children with hearing impairment. After that they felt the need to expand the services to other types of disabilities. Knowing the importance and seriousness of the project in terms of social and moral responsibility NMMC made special efforts to get it sanctioned. Thus ‘etc' Education, Training, Service Centre for Persons With Different Abilities' was founded in 2008.

How did Bengaluru civic body become aware of this center in Navi Mumbai? There is an organization called ‘Parivar’ in Bengaluru. It was a national confederation for the parents of children with disabilities, based in Bengaluru. The members of this organization became aware about ETC during the national conference organized by NMMC last year. They immediately got in talks with the BBMP to replicate the ETC model not only in the city of Bengaluru but all across Karnataka too.

The members of Parivar were impressed by many more facts that they came across during the conference organized by NMMC. They found out that ‘etc' Centre is mainly developing in two phases. First phase is completed and it includes, School for Children With Intellectually  Impairment, School For Children With Learning Disability, Section for Children With Multiple Impairment, section for Children With Cochlear Implant, Unit of  Early Identification And Intervention, Pre-Vocational Training, Individualized Education, Home Based Training unit,  Integrated Unit, Inclusive Unit Outreach Unit, Outdoor Patient Department, Parent Empowerment Cell.

Presently about 107 professionals and administrative staff is working at Centre and 350 Students with various disabilities are imparting special education at center. Approximately 800 persons With Different Abilities are getting direct benefits per annum through the ‘etc' Centre. Number is keeps on increasing as society needs. According to the Disability code 1995, NMMC has approved various posts for ‘etc' taking consideration of the students-professionals ratio. Currently about 65 special professionals are working at e.t.c. which includes special educators, audiologists, speech therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers and other consultants. Professionals are being recruited in proportion to the addition of number of students and sections increase. NMMC is the first corporation to recognize the efforts taken by the special educators and to offer them an incentive of Rs.1000 and Rs 1500 for Principal per month. NMMC has added a dynamic dimension of being the first and only corporation in India to set up an Education, Training and Service Centre for Persons with Different Abilities.

Considering all these fantastic facts about the center, the director of projects and development of ‘Parivaar’, J P Gadkari found the urgent need of such centers in Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka and hence he and his team got into talks with Begaluru civic body which is showing interest in this ambitious project.