THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the Spectrum initiative of the Kerala State Social Security Mission will lead to the comprehensive development of the autism sector. The initiative has come up at a time when the autism cases were showing a spike at the global level, said Pinarayi during the state-wide launch of the Spectrum initiative at the Nishagandhi Auditorium here on Thursday.
“Through Spectrum, the state government will play a decisive role in addressing the issues being faced by those affected by autism and those who take care of them,” he said. “Post-floods, the state is in the process of building a new Kerala. It is the government’s aim is to provide equal rights to the differently-abled and the downtrodden,” he said.
During the event, the CM also announced the state-wide implementation of the Saranabalyam project an initiative to make the state free from child begging, child labour and child trafficking. The Spectrum initiative is an umbrella project that brings together seven programmes meant for children with intellectual disabilities.
Some of the key initiatives that will be taken under the project include empowering the parents of intellectually disabled children, ensuring quality therapy centres and treatment, setting up autism centres at five medical colleges and Kozhikode NIMHANS, establishing a Regional Autism Rehabilitation and Research Centre at NIPMR-Thrissur and training for doctors working in the autism sector.
The programme was attended by Social Justice Minister K K Shailaja and Social Justice Special Secretary Biju Prabhakar, among others.