THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Smitha Arunachalam, a hearing-impaired person from Kochi, has had a miserable few days owing to the lockdown brought into effect to contain the spread of Covid-19. Her normal life was thrown out of gear after she ran out of batteries of her hearing aid.“Living life inaudible is not easy and it gets tough without the assistive device. I couldn’t work for two weeks because my hearing aid stopped working.
I live in Fort Kochi and the lockdown was declared when I went to visit my parents at Paravoor. I was stranded and couldn’t get in touch with the shop from where I purchase the batteries. I made minimal use of the aid to extend the battery life but eventually, it ran out,” says 44-year-old Smitha, who works in the billing section of a wholesale drugstore in Kochi.
“I started experiencing hearing loss after my first child was born. I have been completely dependent on the hearing aid for over a decade now. My husband has a contractual job and both of us have to work to run the family. I couldn’t hear much. However, I read about the helpline number launched by NISH. I contacted them and got help immediately. The authorities intervened to make arrangements. I could get the batteries from a shop nearby,” adds Smitha.
Lack of repairing shops and unavailability of batteries for assistive devices during the lockdown have landed thousands of persons with hearing disabilities in the lurch.As per the 2015 census, there are around 60,925 hearing-impaired persons in the state. The 24x7 helpline numbers launched by NISH are flooded with calls. According to officials, the helpline desk received around 216 distress calls with a majority of them relating to the unavailability of batteries and damaged hearing aid devices.
A senior official of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) said that persons with disabilities are the most vulnerable during disasters. “Especially during a pandemic situation like this, the issues faced by people with special needs should be addressed with utmost priority. Kerala has around 7,93,937 disabled persons. We have noticed that people with disabilities especially the deaf community are the worst hit by the lockdown,” said the official. In the wake of repeated grievances from the hearing-impaired community, NISH mapped private vendors selling batteries in each district to assist those in need.
“We are providing supply chain logistic arrangements to deliver batteries at the doorstep. It is impossible for the disabled to get batteries or the device serviced in rural areas. We are making all arrangements to mobilise and deliver batteries even to remote locations,” the official added.
24x7 helpline for the hearing-impaired
Group 1: Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha,
Pathanamthitta 9249505723, 9496918178, 8078871318
Group 2: Kottayam, Idukki, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad 7994548133, 9446750983, 9061627892, 9142652525
Group 3: Malappuram, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Kannur, Kasaragod 7025065488, 9496366836, 9995459717, 9061489198