Of Disabilities and Society
Heath care and Agrarian Society...
Scams, corruption and the political society
Denial in Pakistani society and media
Earlier today, I was talking to a mother of a child with autism. We were discussing her child’s progress in the various areas of development, one of which was the social aspect; clearly an area of difficulty for a child with autism.
The mother was telling me about how hard it has been for him to make friends; the child is around 9-years old and has absolutely no friends. I asked the mother if she ever tried setting him up for play dates with her friends’ children, and she said that the only ones who do accept him and are willing to take the time to play with him are teenagers (out of sympathy), but no one his age.
The sad looking mother then continued to tell me a story of the sweet girl who used to sit next to him in class, and occasionally interacted with him. This sweet girl strangely disappeared from the boy’s class this year, and when the mother asked where that girl was, she was told that her mother asked the teachers to move her to another class as she did not want her playing with him, a child with a disability.
I have to pause an obvious question here: If adults think like that, can we really blame little kids for not wanting to have people with disabilities as their friends? I also have to state the obvious- clearly not very obvious for that mother and people like her- ; It is a shame that we, in this time of life, still cannot accept others' differences. Does anyone on this earth know for sure that he/she will not obtain a disability at any point in his/her life?
We are clearly still so ignorant as societies, and cruel as humans.
It is on days like this that I am struck by the truth that my work does not stop with those children, but needs to extend to their families, schools and societies. We have a lot to do in this area… A lot that I will not be able to fix on my own, yet I shall start my attempts with baby steps; by telling the stories of those children and their families…
Enough discrimination… Enough cruelty… Enough ignorance…
