Despite the roll out of the project of operating mobile intervention units to provide treatment to differently abled children below the age of 6 at their doorsteps, in Tamil Nadu recently, there are certain teething worries to tackle.
Though it was claimed that the services of ortho technicians and multipurpose rehabilitation workers attached to the Department of Welfare of the Differently Abled would be used for the mobile units, official sources pointed out that diversion of existing staff would affect the functioning of the early intervention centres run by the Department.
Further, drivers for these mobile vans were yet to be selected and the department is yet to finalise the diesel quota for these vehicles. Such being the case, an alternative method, to overcome the non-availability of trained trainers, by roping in the non-governmental organisations running schools for mentally retarded/muscular dystrophy or hearing-impaired children in the districts, as suggested by some senior officials has its own limitations, according to sources.
“Because we cannot ensure or extract dedicated performance from the technicians engaged by a third party at free of charge. Our role will be limited to positioning of the vehicle with all equipment at the venue (hamlets) for utilisation by the third party. In case of any damage to the equipment fixing the responsibility will become a problem,” the officials added.
Thus, the sources claimed, it would be better to implement this project on the lines of free emergency ambulance services by fixing particular amount as the fee for providing doorstep treatment to identified children. By this method the government could avoid recurring expenditure costs on diesel, staff emoluments and maintenance of both equipment and vehicle, they pointed out.
