CHENNAI: Nandhini * is a fighter. When her autistic son was ill treated at a private temple, she refused to be intimidated. She did something that most parents in her position would not have chosen to do; she filed a police complaint against the temple authorities. “My son and I had gone to a temple in Nungambakkam the other day. Aarathi had just finished, and the electronic drum set was being played.
He got excited and started screaming in joy. This annoyed the temple authorities,” she says. “They started saying things to him like ‘Don’t you have sense?’ ‘You have grown up like a buffalo!’ As a parent of a child diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), it was really painful to hear all that.”
She says that she immediately sensed that the temple authorities were not aware about children with special needs. “I knew that they had not realised this fact and politely told them to mind their own business. But they kept on passing insensitive comments about my son. People started gathering around me and I felt uncomfortable. I started crying even,” she narrates.
But soon Nandhini mustered enough courage and went to drop off her son at his school before going back to the temple to explain autism to the temple authorities,but they did not budge. That is when she decided that she would go to the police. “It was my last resort. I did not want any other parent to go through anything like this. I wanted people to be sensitive towards special needs,” she explains. She filed a complaint against the authorities under the Rights of Persons with Disability Act.
“The police personnel were polite. They immediately called up the temple authorities and informed them that what happened was wrong and gave them directions to treat people better. It was only after I gave the complaint that I got to know that many parents have faced similar experiences like mine. I hope they will go ahead and report if something like this happens to them again,” she says. A senior police official says, “This is the first time that we received such a complaint. We are ready to educate people on the rights of the disabled in the future too.”
Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, says...
(1) The government and the local authorities shall take measures to ensure that the women and children with disabilities enjoy their rights equally with others.
(2) All children with disabilities shall have right on an equal basis to freely express their views on all matters affecting them. The government and authorities will give them appropriate support as per their age and disability.