He cannot sit or walk, has epilepsy, and does not speak. In such a condition, he cannot go to school either though he is enrolled in one. The 10-year-old boy hails from a financially backward family in Nochad grama panchayat under the Perambra block resource centre (BRC) of the Samagra Shiksha, Kerala. His father is a labourer and mother homemaker.
When the lockdown came into effect, the already struggling family found itself in dire circumstances. With the father unable to go to work, there was little money to take care of their needs.
Like the young boy, there are 88 other bedridden children in seven panchayats in Kozhikode – Changaroth, Chakkittapara, Kayanna, Koothali, Cheruvannoor, Nochad, and Perambra — under the Perambra BRC.
Plight
“Three or four days into the lockdown and its effects on the mental health of the people started becoming evident. These children, though, have always been in a kind of lockdown, largely confined to their homes. Their parents too are in much the same situation, with at least one parent at home all the time to look after them. A majority of them hail from financially backward families. With no work to be had during the lockdown, the families’ troubles increased,” says G. Ravi, Integrated Education for Disabled Children (IEDC) coordinator at the BRC.
The BRC officials then wrote to the panchayat secretaries and spoke to the panchayat presidents on the plight of the children.
Mr. Ravi says the BRC has complete details of bedridden children in each panchayat which have been collected as part of a study ‘Nishabdarayirikkan Namukkenthavakasham.’
Food
Armed with the details, it was easy to get the panchayats to support these children by providing food to them through community kitchens and ensure medicines for them too.
“BRC officials are not able to help these families owing to the lockdown. So, it was decided to approach the panchayats which have the mechanisms to help them,” says Mr. Ravi.
The panchayats’ response was positive. The Changaroth panchayat contacted the families of such children in its limits the same day it was informed, and the next day, 12 of the 17 families there started getting food from the community kitchen.
The Nochad panchayat authorities too called a meeting and resolved to provide food and food kits to the families. Other panchayats too have stepped up so that no one goes hungry.
