ACCORDING to the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), inclusivity means creating an environment where adult IDs have an opportunity to:
- Have relationships of their choosing with individuals in the community, in addition to paid staff and/or immediate family
- Live in a home that they choose
- Have access to the support that they need
- Engage in meaningful work in an inclusive setting
- Enjoy the same recreation and other leisure activities that are available to the general public
- Participate fully in religious observances, practices, events and ceremonies of the individual’s choice
What Navkshitij does
Addresses behavioural issues
Our special friends cannot go out and make friends like normal youth. By the time they reach us, the youth, especially males, have picked up habits like smoking and chewing tobacco. Some come to us molested and abused, even sexually. Most of them have serious behavioural issues by the time they reach Navkshitij. It is a challenge to wean them off these habits but, within a month, they fall in tune with the others in the group. The challenged do not feel challenged amongst their peers.
Provides a secure and happy environment
The institute is designed for IDs; hence, they have access to any support that they need. Workshop activities are designed to give them a feeling of having done some creative work; it helps give meaning to their life. It adds a new dimension to their day. Special friends are given the freedom to choose where they want to work and for how long. They work in the sheltered workshop, the garden, the kitchen or at the office.
As we have seen in the blog on self-advocacy, recreation and leisure activities are designed for IDs. In fact, they have been exposed to more recreational activities than normal youth. Street plays, drama competitions and Parvati Hill climbing competitions are specially planned for IDs. In addition, our special friends participate in sports, drama, singing and art competitions organised by other NGOs. We have cupboards full of trophies won by our friends.
Our friends are taken to malls, restaurants, cricket matches and movies. Once in a way, they enjoy a day’s stay at some holiday resort. They enjoy long trips; they have made eight trips to the Himalayas and to Bandhavgad, Bharatpur, Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, the Nilgiris and, even, Thailand.
All festivals like Holi, Ganesh Utsav, Diwali, Dahi Handi, Nagpanchami, Raksha Bandhan, Christmas and New Year are celebrated with gusto. In 2024, Raksha Bandhan was celebrated at the Paraplegic Centre with defense personnel injured in action.
Offers inclusivity in a bubble
The CBR (Community-Based Rehabilitation) model at Navkshitij is designed for inclusivity. We call it inclusivity in a bubble. We do not allow them to go out unescorted. Many will not be able to find their way back home. Others may not be able to tell what they want. Wherever they go, they carry their suraksha kavach along with them. In Navkshitij, they live among as many normal people (of all ages) as the number of IDs. Here, every single person, including children, has been sensitised to the needs of the IDs.
We have 20 IDs above age 45; we do not isolate them. Their enthusiasm for activities is fading like it happens to all of us as we age. Every year fresh, young special friends join us. All activities continue; the senior citizens enjoy watching the juniors run around, play and enjoy themselves, just like in normal society.
Is employment a solution?
Often, it happens that people apply the same tenets of inclusivity that apply to persons with physical, visual or hearing disabilities. They feel that giving IDs a job is inclusivity. The ground reality is that only five, at a stretch ten, percent of IDs, can take the grind of a nine-to-five job. They are paid an average of Rs. 4000 to Rs. 6000. (Raychem is an exception; they pay our special friends handsomely.) The IDs can retain the job only as long as there is someone who can take them there and get them back. We need to remember that their parents are ageing. Navkshitij looks after them for the rest of the time and the rest of their lives.
Other people at the job site may not be sensitised though the situation is changing for the better. The IDs are not respected for their work; they are tolerated. This may cause an increase in behavioural issues.
The problem with getting employment is that it does not answer the main question that haunts parents of IDs, namely, Who after me? IDs cannot live by themselves. They can never earn enough to run a house; they cannot run a house. Other questions that keep troubling us are: Do they understand what dignity of labour is? Honestly, how many of us go to work on Monday for dignity of labour? Normal people work for the salary slip at the end of the month. They want to have a career, get married, have a house of their own, have children and bring them up well. Our special friends do not have this motivation.
One able-bodied member of the family is engaged just to take them to the workplace and fetch them back. That is a poor financial exchange. Is this financially viable? Does their contribution make a significant difference to the finances of the family? The company pays them not because of their abilities but as a contribution to society. Who has really benefitted from the whole exercise?
The need for a study
Giving employment to a few IDs is not a solution for rehabilitation. Talk to parents. You will find that most of them would not like their child to be displayed at some café. Ask the IDs, do they really enjoy it? If so, for how long? Follow-up studies of IDs who have been placed are not published. NGOs that support placement activities need to publish reports that answer the following: How long did the employment last? What was the mental condition of the ID after working for a couple of months? How did parents of IDs manage to accompany their child? How much money did the family lose to keep the ID employed?
A disturbing question
The final and the most disturbing question is, are we promoting child labour? We need to remember this—the mental age of an ID is never above 18 years.
Read Previous Blogs:
- Self-advocacy
- Navkshitij: An end-to-end solution
- Why Navkshitij
- The Corporate Way
- New Horizons, new challenges
- The ID-Centric Home
- Deep diving into the world of IDs (continued)
- Deep dive into the world of the Intellectually Disabled
- Through the eyes of a parent
- Rehabilitation and Inclusivity: An Introduction
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