Our Projects - Stake Holders

The beneficiaries of the project are the society as a whole. Theoretically speaking every individual is at risk of developing one or other forms of non communicable disorders as well as all families are potentially at risk of having a child with a developmental disorder.However practically speaking the beneficiaries can be divided into

Immediate or Direct Beneficiaries

The immediate beneficiaries are the children, adults and elderly with various disabilities, developmental or acquired late in life due to one of the many causes already discussed in the project. According to the WHO estimates 10% of the world population is having one or other form of disabilities. In the Indian context with a population of 1.2 billion, approximately 120 million people will be the direct stake holders of the project. Although the exact epidemiological data are not available, over two third of the disabled are in the South- East Asian countries. The treatment and rehabilitation programs currently available in this region are quite inadequate and unscientific. The reasons for the neglect of these health care problems are many folded:

• General lack of awareness in the community regarding the disorders.
• A lack of awareness among professionals and hence lack of proper guidance towards long term rehabilitation programs, treatment and placement especially in the case of children.
• Lack of adequate number of professionals and special educators for the management of the disorders.
• Lack of streamlining in the management of these disorders.
• Disability management is trans-disciplinary and requires the convergence of various disciplines and departments which is lacking in our country.
• There is lack of facilities, including modern amenities like MRI, fMRI, genetic labs etc.
• Long term plans in order to prevent disabilities through prenatal diagnosis, genetic counselling are not practised and advocated on a uniform basis.
• Research and development to find appropriate medicines or replacement therapies especially in the era where genome project, stem cell therapy and organ transplantation are in progress.

Hence it is expected that the implementation of the current project will be beneficial to a substantial number of children, adults and elderly with various types of disabilities and will throw a new light of hope to their lives. In this project it is envisaged that many of the hurdles mentioned above will be overcome.

Potential Beneficiaries

The kins of those already having such diseases are the high risk individuals; they are the potential beneficiaries of the project but will also include all those who may encounter similar disorders in life in future times. This will be the society at large and any individual who can harbour such diseases due to many reasons; hence the number is not estimated. The project will thus form part of a Health Planning of a Country or State in the context of providing Total Health to all its citizens. As WHO envisaged Health for All will not come to a reality, unless Non Communicable Diseases and Developmental Disabilities are prevented and managed successfully with appropriate programs. Since the causes of non communicable disorders are heterogeneous and Multi factorial, long term planning and strategies have to be developed to reach the real goals. Since the goal of non communicable disorders are oriented to the quality of life rather than longevity the planning requires a Multi sectoral approach with involvement of various disciplines and departments of government like Health, Education, Social Welfare, Local Administration and Planning. The Project thus will be a novel venture for the country as well as other South-East Asian nations in the setting of a new dimension to its Health care planning.

Indirect Beneficiaries

There are many indirect benefits that can be expected through the implementation of the project. These include increased job opportunities to a substantial number of young educated persons to whom both skilled and non skilled professional and paramedical professional training can be imparted by starting appropriate courses. There is a dearth of adequate number of trained professionals in the field of Neurology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Speech Language pathology, clinical psychology, special education, clinical linguistics, occupational therapy, Biomedical engineering, genetics and physiotherapy in the country to manage the number of persons with disabilities who require their services. This will open up tremendous job opportunities for many.

The other important indirect benefit is development in the economic front through research and development in these areas through promotion of development in the modern technologies of medical treatment such as genome project, stem cell therapy, organ transplantation and artificial bio material development. There is also the potential benefit of extracting the hidden scientific basis of the success of Ayurveda treatment in these disorders. Through properly organized scientific research using advanced technologies available in other systems, newer drugs beneficial for cognitive, Language or loco motor development can be developed. Currently many of such medicines are used, but without adequately and scientifically proven methods of analysis of their benefits. Properly organized research and systematic development can provide us the opportunity to unravel the mystical aspects of the drugs and thus provide newer horizons of treatment.