TEENSPEAK
Taare Zameen Par created awareness about
dyslexia for millions of movie-going Indians.
Bollywood can help revolutionize autism
awareness, Lakshmi Somasundaram feels
Helping Fatima
Trips to a children’s home in Tamil Nadu brings
Lakshmi Somasundaram in touch with the reality of being autistic
in India. She believes Bollywood and India’s Silicon Valley can
make a difference
Sirkali is a typical dusty, rural Indian town. Famous for its tem- ple, this Tamil Nadu hamlet looks like a beehive. People are buzzing everywhere. Sirkali is a heterogeneous mix — of haves and have nots, rural
and urban life, children neatly dressed in
their uniforms going to English medium
schools and children abandoned by their
parents.
At Anbalayam, a home for abandoned
mentally challenged children, I am surrounded by 50 children. As I look around
the room, they are all smiling, writing, and
talking, happy that they have visitors.
I spot a girl sitting in a corner of the room
wearing a different uniform; she seems
more aloof and to herself than the other
children. A social worker tells me that
Fatima is autistic, but her parents do not
understand that she is autistic. They realize
that she is not mentally challenged, like the
rest of the children at this institution, but
are forced to send her to Anbalayam
because the local school will not accept her.
There is no special school for autistic chil-
dren in Sirkali or any other big city in the
area. The social worker convinced the par-
ents that their child is autistic and is pro-
viding her special training.
Most of the studies on autism have been
conducted in big cities like Delhi and very
little information is available on autism in
rural India where the vast majority of the
population lives. While these studies have
focused on western solutions, there is a
critical need to look at the role of indigenous beliefs and intervention practices in
managing autism. Diagnosis and intervention in autism in India are heavily influenced by socio-economic factors that are
unique to the country like family, culture,
religion, cultural and social norms and
societal perception.
Contrary to Western culture, Indian children who are aloof at a young age are
viewed as those who will not cause any
trouble to their parents. Such culturally-induced ‘aloofness’ can be a barrier in diagnosing autism. The conceptualization of
autism as a product of karma is also common in Indian culture.
While there is a dire need for trained pro-
fessionals, institutions, and government
programs to integrate autistics in society,
two segments of the Indian society that can
have a dramatic impact on creating the
much needed societal awareness and inte-
gration are the media and private entrepre-
neurship.
Lakshmi, a psychology major, is a junior at
Bryn Mawr College, Pennsylvania
