The following is a report that appeared today on 'The Hindu', at Page 7, lower right corner.
People's representatives let them down
Kolar : People's representatives in Kolar district chose to keep off a function to mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities on Saturday.
Except for the presidents of the zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat, none of the people's representatives, including Textiles Minister and district in-charge Varthur Prakash and Minister of State for Railways K.H.Muniyappa, turned up for the function. They only made the people with disabilities wait for more than one hour for the arrival of the dignitaries and disappointed them without attending the function.
The District administration ,zilla Panchayat, women and child welfare department , District People with disabilities and senior citizens' empowerment department organised the function at T.Chennaiah Rangamandira. Though the function was scheduled to commence at 10.30 am, it started only around noon after waiting for the minister's arrival.
Mr. Prakash did not attend the function inspite of his own reported presence in town. The officers were waiting for him since they received a message that the Minister would be arriving , " in a few minutes".
"The way the people with disabilities were made to wait for the minister was unpardonable," K. Anand (Name changed on request), an Activist working with the special people told The Hindu.
"It is not that the only presence of ministers will make the function meaningful. However the presence of the people's representatives will definitely strengthen the will of the special people. They feel 'we are not alone,." Mr Anand remarked.
A week back I attended a friend's wedding where I met someone with disabilities, a teenage boy. He came around me and my friend's and he looked very interested in some of the colourful purses that my friend's were carrying. I have to admit that I was scared at the first instance. Maybe because he came too close too fast and in normal circumstances if any man or woman was to behave that way I would push them away as a defence.
Thankfully , Latif, my friend who was close by knew how to handle the situation. He gave the purse to Nandan, he also spoke to him gently, shook his hand and like an old friend put a hand on his shoulder. Nandan looked so happy and content for being treated with love and respect. He put his head on Latif's shoulder and stood that way for a long time.
After that, all of us slowly learnt to behave ourselves around Nandan. We helloed him and spoke to him, smiled and listened to him. He liked that, and we realised we have to learn something new. We have to learn to behave gently with special people . We are not supposed to laugh at them, or get scared and run away and hide. What happened to Nandan, could have happened to any of us.....Nandan and people like him are not "Mad", they see things differently, they see things we don't see. Or they behave in a way, we don't understand. They are not capable of adjusting to our ways, but god has given us the sense to understand their ways, so lets put that "sense" to use.
This happened a few years back: I was in a car belonging to the man I was dating at that time. We were driving through a market area and the traffic movement was really slow. Suddenly, a man appeared at my window, he was trying to look inside . Thankfully the window glass was pulled up, but he did scare me. He was an old man, probably lived on the streets, hair grown and dirty and clothes torn and tattered. He continued looking inside for a couple of seconds. The man I was dating got so angry at this behaviour, inspite of me telling him "that man appears to be mentally unstable", he got out of the car and slapped the old man so hard across his face, he fell down. Some people around said the old man is mad, why did you slap him? My cruel man says, "they behave that way purposely!" and then turns to me who's in a total shocked state and tells me or rather warns me, " I don't like anybody looking at you that way. Do you understand? Now don't act as if I did something wrong. I did this for you."
What sort of an old man will stick his face across a closed tainted window and try to look who's sitting inside?
What are the chances that his behaviour was on purpose? What purpose did he serve by looking inside a moving car?
This cruel man did slap that old man, but the scar remained on my heart !
Many many nights I woke up with a start, as if someone had slapped my face.
I had never seen anybody slap or hit anybody like that before. I have never seen violence at that close counter. And I pray to god everyday not to let me see anything like that ever again.
These kind of men live respectfully in our society!!
These are the kind of men we elect as our representatives.
And these are the kind of men some of us end up dating at some point of time! Yuck!
Another news appeared on "The Hindu", same page, right next to the above mentioned news report , " Life Plays a Cruel Joke on him", It's the story of an old man who has 2 mentally challenged daughters and another physically challenged daughter. His only solace is that his son and the youngest daughter do not have disabilities. His wife too cannot walk or talk properly.
Despite belonging to a Scheduled Tribe community he has not received any of the benefits extended to the community.
* Not been provided a house under The Ashraya or Ambedkar housing schemes.
* Not provided irrigated agricultural land provided to Scheduled Castes and Tribe landless agricultural families.
* His daughters have not received any pension given to physically challenged persons by the government.
You know what? Every time I read a news like this or watch a news like this on TV, I feel so helpless and useless.
I am caught up in a dilemma.
If I dedicate a life to helping people in need, or working on projects for the environment, that will be the only thing I'll do throughout my life! I will not have enough money to explore the other dimensions of my personality.
Conclusion?? It's not in my favour and I will not take it.
I'm sure many of you are caught up in the same situation.
I have met some people who have taken up this work , and are happy doing it. But all of us cannot be full timers in social work, nor do we have the money to make the difference.
The only sad option we are left with is to blog about it, or talk it out with our friends, let some hours pass on this and we try our best to forget this and get back to life!
You know,
we "let things be".
we "forget about it"
we " get back to life as if nothing happened".
That is our problem!
People's representatives let them down
Kolar : People's representatives in Kolar district chose to keep off a function to mark International Day for Persons with Disabilities on Saturday.
Except for the presidents of the zilla panchayat and taluk panchayat, none of the people's representatives, including Textiles Minister and district in-charge Varthur Prakash and Minister of State for Railways K.H.Muniyappa, turned up for the function. They only made the people with disabilities wait for more than one hour for the arrival of the dignitaries and disappointed them without attending the function.
The District administration ,zilla Panchayat, women and child welfare department , District People with disabilities and senior citizens' empowerment department organised the function at T.Chennaiah Rangamandira. Though the function was scheduled to commence at 10.30 am, it started only around noon after waiting for the minister's arrival.
Mr. Prakash did not attend the function inspite of his own reported presence in town. The officers were waiting for him since they received a message that the Minister would be arriving , " in a few minutes".
"The way the people with disabilities were made to wait for the minister was unpardonable," K. Anand (Name changed on request), an Activist working with the special people told The Hindu.
"It is not that the only presence of ministers will make the function meaningful. However the presence of the people's representatives will definitely strengthen the will of the special people. They feel 'we are not alone,." Mr Anand remarked.
A week back I attended a friend's wedding where I met someone with disabilities, a teenage boy. He came around me and my friend's and he looked very interested in some of the colourful purses that my friend's were carrying. I have to admit that I was scared at the first instance. Maybe because he came too close too fast and in normal circumstances if any man or woman was to behave that way I would push them away as a defence.
Thankfully , Latif, my friend who was close by knew how to handle the situation. He gave the purse to Nandan, he also spoke to him gently, shook his hand and like an old friend put a hand on his shoulder. Nandan looked so happy and content for being treated with love and respect. He put his head on Latif's shoulder and stood that way for a long time.
After that, all of us slowly learnt to behave ourselves around Nandan. We helloed him and spoke to him, smiled and listened to him. He liked that, and we realised we have to learn something new. We have to learn to behave gently with special people . We are not supposed to laugh at them, or get scared and run away and hide. What happened to Nandan, could have happened to any of us.....Nandan and people like him are not "Mad", they see things differently, they see things we don't see. Or they behave in a way, we don't understand. They are not capable of adjusting to our ways, but god has given us the sense to understand their ways, so lets put that "sense" to use.
This happened a few years back: I was in a car belonging to the man I was dating at that time. We were driving through a market area and the traffic movement was really slow. Suddenly, a man appeared at my window, he was trying to look inside . Thankfully the window glass was pulled up, but he did scare me. He was an old man, probably lived on the streets, hair grown and dirty and clothes torn and tattered. He continued looking inside for a couple of seconds. The man I was dating got so angry at this behaviour, inspite of me telling him "that man appears to be mentally unstable", he got out of the car and slapped the old man so hard across his face, he fell down. Some people around said the old man is mad, why did you slap him? My cruel man says, "they behave that way purposely!" and then turns to me who's in a total shocked state and tells me or rather warns me, " I don't like anybody looking at you that way. Do you understand? Now don't act as if I did something wrong. I did this for you."
What sort of an old man will stick his face across a closed tainted window and try to look who's sitting inside?
What are the chances that his behaviour was on purpose? What purpose did he serve by looking inside a moving car?
This cruel man did slap that old man, but the scar remained on my heart !
Many many nights I woke up with a start, as if someone had slapped my face.
I had never seen anybody slap or hit anybody like that before. I have never seen violence at that close counter. And I pray to god everyday not to let me see anything like that ever again.
These kind of men live respectfully in our society!!
These are the kind of men we elect as our representatives.
And these are the kind of men some of us end up dating at some point of time! Yuck!
Another news appeared on "The Hindu", same page, right next to the above mentioned news report , " Life Plays a Cruel Joke on him", It's the story of an old man who has 2 mentally challenged daughters and another physically challenged daughter. His only solace is that his son and the youngest daughter do not have disabilities. His wife too cannot walk or talk properly.
Despite belonging to a Scheduled Tribe community he has not received any of the benefits extended to the community.
* Not been provided a house under The Ashraya or Ambedkar housing schemes.
* Not provided irrigated agricultural land provided to Scheduled Castes and Tribe landless agricultural families.
* His daughters have not received any pension given to physically challenged persons by the government.
You know what? Every time I read a news like this or watch a news like this on TV, I feel so helpless and useless.
I am caught up in a dilemma.
If I dedicate a life to helping people in need, or working on projects for the environment, that will be the only thing I'll do throughout my life! I will not have enough money to explore the other dimensions of my personality.
Conclusion?? It's not in my favour and I will not take it.
I'm sure many of you are caught up in the same situation.
I have met some people who have taken up this work , and are happy doing it. But all of us cannot be full timers in social work, nor do we have the money to make the difference.
The only sad option we are left with is to blog about it, or talk it out with our friends, let some hours pass on this and we try our best to forget this and get back to life!
You know,
we "let things be".
we "forget about it"
we " get back to life as if nothing happened".
That is our problem!
