She gave up her dreams to help special children

Kusum Kamal wanted to join the administrative services to do her bit for the country knowing very little that destiny had other plans for her.

It was not until her first child, a girl, was born when she realised that she would have to simply forget about her own aspirations and dreams. Her little girl was not fully mentally healthy and was a slow learner. She was a special child. “I immediately realised that the Almighty wanted me to contribute to society in a different way,” said Kusum.

While taking care of her daughter’s special needs, it dawned on her that there were many others like her, who too needed special care. And that thought changed everything. 

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Kusum said that during the course of her daughter Vaishnavi’s treatment she felt that there was very little the existing schools then could do for her.

“We got her admitted to schools for special children but there was not much improvement,” she said. Kusum, a post graduate in sociology, did B.Ed (special education) and also a course in speech therapy only to properly take care of her daughter.

“While I managed to bring about significant improvement in my daughter’s behaviour, I always thought about those, whose children, suffering from similar disorders, found themselves helpless,” she said.

The thought of doing something for the special children propelled Kusum to launch a centre for them. Today, Kusum runs a school for special children, whom she calls “angels”, in Lucknow and has completely dedicated herself to it. The school called “Parvarish” (bringing up), which started in 2012 with just one child, has currently around 60 special children on its rolls.

“It is a school for special children who have special needs. Parvarish  School and Physiotherapy Centre was established to provide and expand mental health services in society,” she said.

Quality of life

 “This centre aims at providing educational environment to  students, improving their quality of life and working on their overall development...we try to provide the best services to society holding a special population and their caregivers too,” Kusum said.

Currently pursuing PhD in sociology, Kusum is a diabetic and has recurrent bouts of cervical pain. “I forget my pain and suffering when I am among my angels,” she said.

 “Our school is only for children who are abnormal and are not able to do work...children, who are not fit mentally or physically,” she said. The school provides life-long residential care for mentally challenged adults also.

Kusum said that she was deeply pained by the attitude of society towards such children. “I found that such children were often called as mad, lame and similar other words….how humiliating it must be for them,” she said. “Here at Parvarish, we call our special children as angels,” she said.

Parvarish, which is a co-education school, has around 18 dedicated staff members who help Kusum in teaching and taking care of special needs of children. “Besides basic facilities, we provide them textbooks, notebooks, school uniforms to make them feel good and confident,” she said.

No financial help

Kusum said that she did not receive any kind of financial help from the government or other agencies. “We generate our own resources to keep the school running, pay the salary for the staff and maintain the transport services,” she said.

She said that the children of poor parents are not charged anything. “We try to help them by giving them free education and other facilties,” she said. “The centre owns sufficient separate areas for classroom, teaching, speech therapy, physiotherapy and psychological assessment along with dance and play activities,” she said.

“Our aim is to make these children normal as far as possible…many of our students will appear to be normal to a layman…they are able to take care of some of their needs and have shown that they can learn also,” Kusum said.

And when Vaishnavi, who is now 13, came rushing into the room and said hello and shook hand, it became more than clear that Kusum had succeeded in her efforts. Children are trained in music, yoga, arts and crafts besides imparting vocational education. They have performed in several state-level cultural programmes and won laurels.

“All these children need is a bit of love and care…their hearts are filled with love and they will shower it on those, who feel for them,” she said. No wonder children of the school do not want her to leave them even for a minute. “I send videos of myself to children, when I am out to attend some conference or seminar…children would simply insist on seeing me…such is their love for me…one does not need anything else,” Kusum said.

Kusum’s husband is an engineer by profession and lends all help to her. “It would have been impossible for me to start such a school without his support…even though I find little time for him and my younger son, I get their full support,” she said.

Kusum knows that what she was doing was like a drop in the ocean. “I want to expand and start this school at other centres in the country…I wish to take care of more and more special children,” she said.

Kusum wants society to change its attitude toward special children. “They must not feel humiliation….instead they should get more love in comparison to normal children,” she said.