The Supreme Court Sees The Light

Most of us watched with concern, dismay and horror as a drama involving a young woman with a mental handicap played out in the national press this week. The woman - just 19 years old - is a ward of the state and lives in a Nari Niketan in Chandigarh. She was raped by two of the guards working in the institution and she became pregnant.

Thinking they were acting for her benefit, some NGOs in the area brought suit that she should have an abortion and the Chandigarh High Court ordered that it be done, saying she was unable to understand the nature of her situation and would not be able to take care of the child should she bring it to term.

The young woman, however, insisted that she did not want an abortion.

The case finally reached the Supreme Court where emotional and provocative arguments were made on both sides.

Yesterday, the court stayed the Chandigarh decision and ordered that the pregnancy be allowed to continue.

However you may feel about abortion (I am against it) this case brought up all sorts of disturbing and fundamental issues:

1. Does having a mental handicap mean that your right to have children is someone else's decision?
2. What makes a good parent? Is intellectual ability a requirement?
   
3. Who decides?
4. What if, as one of the judges asked, the baby was also handicapped?
   
5. Who should be held responsible for the fact that this woman was raped? The men who did it? The institution which allowed it to happen?

In our organization, a group of us gathered to discuss the case just an hour before the Supreme court decision was handed down. Many interesting points were made and we all felt troubled and challenged by the implications of the case.

One of the most moving statements came from a visiting friend, an educational psychologist, who spoke about a little boy she knew whose parents were both mentally handicapped. But, she said, he was dearly loved, happy and secure. His parents received community support to bring up their child and while he was not likely to be an academic over-achiever, she expected he would grow up to be a good citizen who would hold a job and make his contribution. Should his parents not have been allowed to have him? Should he not have been born at all?

Whose life it it, anyway?

What are your thoughts?

Latika Vihar – where children rule!

Excited voices, dancing feet and smiling faces is what will greet you when you enter the tiny white gate of Latika Vihar in Vasant Vihar. Latika Vihar is an after school activity centre for children, it is a haven in a world where children are forced to grow up, where parental pressure to excel in every field sometimes kills the joy of childhood. Latika Vihar is a place where fun still exists, it is the only place where children are allowed to grow at their own pace and participate in activities they want. There is no pressure to perform or compete with anyone; there is just their desire to nurture their talents and our commitment to fulfill that desire.
At Latika Vihar no one works for the children, we all work with them, from learning pottery to playing badminton, from learning chess to reading in the library, from dancing to bollywood tunes to enacting scenes from different plays, they do all this and more, without any pressure. The child is left to choose what he wants to learn and since there is no pressure to perform, he can leave his inhibitions aside and experiment with different talents.

A child who thought he could not dance because he was told he is not good joins the group because no one is judging him, who knows with time he may turn around to give us a performance worth remembering.

Latika Vihar teaches you a very valuable lesson of life, no one is better or worse each individual is as capable, special and talented as the other. It is a place where the social, economical, physical and mental differences do not matter, what matters here are the excited voices, dancing feet and smiling faces that greeted you at the gate.

gearing up

All of us at the training centre are now gearing up for the new ATT course.
Getting ready to welcome the new trainees .We are going to be really busy! The centre is looking lovely after the new coat of paint and all those posters. We are at our creative best, rearing to go..... so wish us luck.

Minutes of 3rd All NGO Meet

The following are the minutes of the 3rd ALL NGO MEET that was held at , Bajaj Institute, Dehradun on May 15, 2009 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm

Attendees :
- Tenzin Phuntrok, Ngoenga School
- Air Commander A. K. Khanna, Bajaj Institute
- P.M. Samuel, Sumana Samuel, Sharp Memorial School for the Blind
- Bhavishya Dua, Deepak Pande, Dr. Sebastian Gruschke, Latika Roy

Foundation
- Sharon Dominica, Anugrah Project
- Sudha Atreya, NIOH
- Anupama Thapliyal, Priyo Lall, Raphael
- Saswati Singh, Inspiration India

1. There was an initial round of introductions.

2. It was suggested that the Mayor of Dehradun, Mr. Vinod Chamoli is expected to visit one of our meetings. He would like to share his ideas in this area.

3. It was suggested that we include the government organizations like NIOH, NIVH, NIMH working in the area of the disability and we work together towards a common cause. It was suggested that we do not use the term NGO meet from now on, it can be termed as the forum meet.

4. It was suggested that the group be named as Dehradun Ability Forum. The other suggestion was to name it as per the UN convention guidelines. It was decided to temporarily shelve the naming issue and continue with the other items in the agenda.

5. Blog:A blog http://dehradundisabilityforum.blogspot.com has been created for the Dehradun Disability Forum. It was suggested that LRF send out invites for the blog to all email ids attending the meeting and reevaluate the problems in accessing the blog in the next meeting.

6. Poster : Bajaj Institute gave a sample poster design. It was suggested that we refine it and put it on doctors’ clinics and chemists’ shops. It was suggested that we put a proposal to the government for spreading awareness in other areas of Uttarakhand. IT was suggested that we have two formats .. a poster format for patients and a card for reference by the doctors. Finally it was decided that we will pursue only the poster format initially. LRF to initiate the design of the posters and come up with options.

7. Meeting with IMA : A meeting with the Indian Medical Association was suggested and it was decided to make a small presentation for the IMA.

8. October Mela : It was suggested that we have doctors camps, food stalls, sales stalls and cultural events at the event.

9. Bhagwanpur Mela : LRF was planning a disability camp at Bhagwanpur for distribution of Mental Disability certificates. Raphael suggested that they can help with the evaluation. Baja suggested that they will send a representative with booklets.

10. Employment : It was suggested that we help the government help themselves. We as a group can identify information on what employment can be taken up by whom. We can also share the details of the employment available for PwDs.

11. DDF Fund : It was suggested that all member organizations would give a small contribution towards the fund which can be used for running and other minor expenses of the Forum.

12. RTI Usage : It was suggested that we can use RTI to get information from government offices regarding disability. It was also suggested the way to use RTI can be put up on the DDF blog.

13. Indian Sign Language course : Bajaj informed about starting a 3 month Indian sign language course after 20th May with charges of Rs. 300/- . They also planned to start a course on beauty culture and setup a beauty parlour for training people.

14. Next meeting : It was decided that there will be no Forum meeting in June due to the summer holidays and the next meeting would be at Raphael on July 17th, 2009. Raphael to send out the time details with the agenda later.

Minutes of the 2nd All NGO's Meet

ALL NGO's MEET

The following are the minutes of the 2nd ALL NGO MEET that was held at Latika Roy Foundation, Training Center on April 17, 2009 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Attendees :
- Tenzin Phuntrok, Jamyang Tenzin, Ngoenga School
- Air Commander A. K. Khanna, Bajaj Institute
- P.M. Samuel, Sumana Samuel, Sharp Memorial School for the Blind
- Jo Chopra, Bhavishya Dua, Deepak Pande, Archana Sethi, Latika Roy Foundation
- Sharon Dominica, Anugrah Project
- Sudha Atreya, NIOH
- Anupama Thapliyal, Raphael
- Saswati Singh, Inspiration India


1. All present gave introductions and presentations about their respective organizations in the following order :
- Anugrah Project
- Bajaj Institute
- Latika Roy Foundation
- Ngoenga School
- Sharp Memorial school for the Blind
- NIOH
- Raphael
- Inspirations

2. Information Technology : Neha, from LRF told about the usage of information technology for spreading awareness about the organizations and sharing information about disability amongst ourselves. The information can be about trainings, employment, awareness programs or information about disability. She suggested the use of websites, social networking sites (like facebook/orkut) and blogs as a tool for sharing information. She suggested that a blog is the cheapest form of information sharing that can start immediately. The following blogs were suggested : live journal and blogart. She suggested a sample blog that can be looked at for reference is : Circle of Hope. It was decided that since Neha seemed to be the person who knew the most about blogs .. she would start one about the forum that had collected.

3. Forum Name : The group discussed the possibility of having a name for the forum. The name ‘Dehradun Disability Forum’ was suggested and tentatively agreed upon. The logo design for the organization was discussed. It was decided that LRF would come up with sample designs of the logo and present them for selection by others.

3. Disability Camp : The group discussed the possibility of a city wide joint disability camp/convention. It was suggested that a time around October during the Dussehra to Diwali time would be the best for holding such an event. It was suggested that we can find commercial sponsors for such an event. It was decided that all organizations would come up with planning ideas for the camp/convention to the next meeting.

4. Poster : The group discussed the possibility of having a poster for information in English and Hindi. The intention was to share the names and contact details of the organizations with the medical community and the public at large so they can come to these organizations. It was decided that LRF would prepare sample poster designs which give the details of our organizations. Jo from LRF would also look at the funding from some organization like Cipla for sponsoring the posters.

5. Disability Helpline : It was suggested that a disability helpline like ‘197’ be made available and the telephone operators can be trained to redirect the person to the right institute/organization.

6. The next forum meeting details :
Venue : Bajaj Institute
Date : Friday, May 15th, 2009.
Time : 10:00 – 12:00 hrs.

7. The forum rounded off the meeting with a delicious pooled lunch.

LATIKA VIHAR KE BOLLYWOOD TOP 5

Latika Vihar is our own little Neverland. The place where no one ever grows up, in fact it is the place where even grown ups return to their childhood.

That is what happens every time I go there, I forget how old I am and just have fun. This article is not about how and what we do at Latika Vihar, but about the we did on June 12, 2009. This is about Latika Vihar Ke Bollywood Top 5, our play which was great fun to do and equally fun to watch. Ah! How can I leave you out of the process of deciding on the play? I was supposed to decide the play but the children ridiculed, discarded, appreciated and rejected tons of ideas that I gave them so finally I came up with what I thought was the perfect idea which was happily accepted by the children (PHEW!) the idea was of a TV Show. But the acceptance came with a rider, it had to be a dance show.

But I was ready for the challenge, if they were smart; I was smarter (ahem! ahem!).

It would be a dance show but with an anchor and advertisements, after all I had to make them act and no TV show is complete without either! This is how Latika Vihar Ke Bollywood Top 5 finally came to be.

A group of 24 children were divided into three groups. Each group came up with a list of their top ten bollywood songs and three of their favorite advertisements. The lists were tallied songs that were common were picked, that gave us 15 songs! What do we do next? All the songs were loved by the children so we did what any god fearing, democratic organisation does, we voted! Finally the Top 5 were chosen -

Song No 5- Pappu can’t Dance (Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na)
Song No 4- Desi Girl (Dostana)
Song No 3- Aye Pappi (Kismet Konnection)
Song No 2- Move Your Body (Kismet Konnection)
Song No 1- Yeh Dooriyan (Fool & Final)

Each song was intersected by an advertisement or poems by children at Latika Vihar and how can we forget our anchor, Anukta.

She was at her witty best, from Priyanka Chopra and Shahid Kapur’s love story to the effect of the return of our very own “Don’ Shaila and lovelorn Rajesh in the absence of his wife, Hema, she spared no one!

Once the show was over and the curtain call done with, the staff, children and guests at Latika Vihar took over the stage and danced away till they dropped!

Those who missed it need not worry as “Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost”, we will see you soon with another performance!