<B>By Deepa BHOOKHUN</B>

Her name is Disha and she’s five. She smiles constantly and just when you think she’s about to say something, she looks away.

She can’t talk, you see. When she was born, some “accident” at delivery damaged a couple of nerves and that was enough to cut her off from the rest of us.

Her parents, a couple one might class as “normal”, live in Pamplemousses. They have been knocking on every imaginable door possible since the day they realised that something was wrong with their kid. All they found was a set of locked public doors.

Some kind soul eventually told them about APEIM. So for the first time, at the age of five, Disha, who will probably never utter a single sentence in her life, but who breaks your heart with her innocent smile, is taken to see the doctor whose services are provided by APEIM.

Oh! I forgot to mention. In those five years, Disha has never been able to stand up. APEIM believes there is a way to correct this anomaly or, at least, make it slightly better. They have this custom-made wooden tool that is strapped to the tiny legs of Disha and helps her stand. In time, it will strengthen her muscles.

In front of her, there’s an extension, which acts like a little table where she can lean so she doesn’t feel she’s making much of an effort. She needs to be in her “standing table” a few minutes a day so that, one day, she may be able to stand up and have at least some semblance of normal life. Disha will never be what we call a “normal” child. She has special needs. She is mentally disabled and retarded. It is not her fault; it is not her parents’ fault. It’s life.

APEIM looks after 650 Dishas, some are cared for of by other NGOs. Most stay at home for want of a place to go. The State gives some money as if it is doing a good deed, a favour, but has no centre or facility to educate those children, help them integrate or give them those little things that restore dignity to the human being.

But through it all, the fundamentals haven’t changed. We all theoretically have a right to a decent life; we have a right to education. We, not them.

One question to the head of government; why should the NGOs do the job of the State? And one remark to the minister of Education; when someone is doing you a favour, you treat them gracefully, you don’t insult them.

I hope the prime minister will have it in him to go and visit one of those specialised schools one day soon. Education minister Gokhool is probably too busy - he doesn’t have time to return phone calls, let alone write letters, but I know the PM does.

And I hope he will see that theirs is a world where innocence has been frozen in time. Those people will never develop as you and I will and what do we know? Maybe they are happy the way they are but they will only be happy if they have the opportunity to be happy. And this is what those dedicated NGOs have been doing all this while. And this is what the State has failed to do.

To those of you who haven’t been moved by those people, I also suggest a visit. Then you will realise how lucky you are and will start thanking God for small mercies. You will also realise that having a disabled kid could literally happen to anyone.

Even to you…