Many have become regular travellers, some for leisure, some for adventure, while some others for a cause. Yes, a team of social activists have ventured into travelling places but for spreading awareness among school students and public about the rights of differently-abled children.

Using street plays as their main medium to talk about the importance of imparting quality education and basic facilities to differently-abled children, the team comprising representatives from the CBM India Trust, Vidiyal Trust Coimbatore, and Neighbourhood Children Parliament (NCP) Nagercoil, have toured 16 districts including Dharmapuri, Thiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Salem and recently Coimbatore.

One of the organisers, M. Prabakaran from the Vidiyal Trust said that there were around 28.81 million differently-abled children in India of which more than 2.36 million were between the 5 – 10 years.

“We do not have a static record of children above the age of 10 and we target these children as they are mostly school going,” he added.

Talking about the importance of the campaign, Prabakaran said that despite a minimal acceptance, differently-abled children were still deprived of many necessities including proper education, sanitation and were not treated on a par with normal children.

“Keeping this as our main agenda, we started meeting differently abled and normal students in the schools in rural areas aiming to meet at least 500 people in a village. We are also spreading awareness among public in general through street plays and distributing hand outs,” he told the Covai Post.

Darwin, from CBM also said that differently abled children had to be recognised and ensured that they all benefits reached them. “These children are hit in many ways including lack of basic education, transport, scholarships, finance and hygiene as government schools fail to provide even basic toilet facilities to differently abled children,” said Darwin.

Claiming that these children faced many difficulties, both physically and mentally, the play staged by the organisers also said that schools in which such children studied did not have adequate number of teachers. The stress was on the importance of empowering the differently abled children for the welfare of the society.

While they have covered 16 districts in the first phase of the tour, they would soon be resuming their second phase in the coming days.