India has, by the estimates in this article from Daily News & Analysis, at least 4,000,000 persons with autism and lacks the services and facilities to treat and educate them. The full article is available at:http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1114990
MUMBAI: In India, autism has a single storyline: parent, parent, parent. And, it’ll stay that way until India has an adequate number of specialists and facilities to help families fight the disorder.
....The situation in India is no less alarming. “There are about 4 million autistic people in India today,” says Merry Barua, founder-director of the Delhi-based Action for Autism.
Dr Vibha Krishnamurthy, director of the Mumbai-based Ummeed, which works with children with developmental disabilities, has also noticed a rise in autistic cases in Mumbai. “Five years ago, I would treat about three cases a week. Today, it’s increased to five. We think India’s four million cases is a small figure since autism is highly underreported here.”
Dr Leo Rebello, director of the Mumbai-based Natural Health Centre, believes we are looking at the tip of the iceberg. In a research paper, he says autism cases have risen dramatically.
“They were 17.40 lakhs in 2005, 40 lakhs in 2006, and today, the autism-affected population in India would be close to a crore.”
Other doctors too see a sharp rise. Dr Anjali Joshi, an occupational therapist at KEM Hospital, says autism cases have jumped in the last two decades.
“I would hardly see one autistic child in six months those days; now, I treat at least two kids per week.” Points out Dr Anahita Hegde, a neurologist at Jaslok Hospital: “I would see one-two cases a month 10 years ago; today I see 20 fresh cases a month.
This is unfortunate, but it makes sense. India is a very large country and they have a lot to provide for. It would be hard to get all the necessary services to those who need them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they got it organized in the coming decade.
ReplyDelete-Aaron Marks
While am not sure about the figure 4 million as there is no official figure to confirm such a magnitude of population. Typically 2.5% of the total population is mentally disabled which encompasses all kindly mental disability. Also may like to see the URL :
ReplyDeletehttp://www.petitiononline.com/ABPTNF01/petition.html
Politicians are busy in various aspects except this.The parents of children affected by such epidemic developmental disorder getting marginalised minority whose voice would hardly be attended to.