Unfortunately, Pakistan is one of those countries where this intellectual disorder is on the increase but no statistics are available with regards to the number of affected population. Seminars are often arranged in big hotels with discussions and presentations, but real progress in right direction is not found. Non-availability of concrete data on the subject with any governmental or non-governmental organisations bears the testimony of this sour fact. On the contrary, with no governmental cover available to the bereaved families and individuals, the private sector is all geared up for grabbing money from the parents by their continuous emotional blackmailing.
Pakistan is a country, where declining literacy rate has always been a retarding factor in the path of its progression, where child labour abuse has always shown an upward trend and where education is given 2.5% of complete financial budget per annum. In this depleted environment for education, the most neglected but important cadre of our ignorant society is the children with special needs. Number of new born with mental illness in Pakistan is on a steep climb with scanty of institutions available in the country to deal with it. Yet another sour fact is that all these institutions allow admissions of an intellectually disordered child till 25 years of age. This unwritten law which is very religiously taken care of in these institutions is responsible for deterioration of mental health of the child, who is denied of his right of education as citizen of Pakistan.
The principle of inclusive education was put forward at the UNESCO-convened Salamanca Conference in 1994 which has been a major step forward by the international community. The basic concept of inclusive education is to bring an intellectually disordered child into main stream of education. This concept is designed to allow a special child to breathe in normal healthy environment and learn civilised life from his or her classmates; two, this also indirectly but effectively train the society the manner to deal with these children right from the grass root level.
JAWAD RAZA KHAN
Karachi