When Salma Zaman took her four-year-old autistic boy Tawsif to a diagnostic centre, she heard a man asking a nurse whether the test has any side effects on the “abnormal” baby.
“I know my child has some problems. But when someone terms him abnormal, it is really heartbreaking,” said Salma, who attended an international conference on autism in the capital yesterday.
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) and Autism Speaks, a US-based organisation, jointly organised the programme attended by parents of autistic children, teachers, activists, experts and policymakers.
The conference focused on creating awareness about autism.
Children with autism lack communication and socialising abilities due to a complex disability involving a biological or organic defect in brain, experts say.
Boys are four times more prone than girls to have autism. The reason behind the problem is yet to be discovered.
Though it cannot be cured, improvement is possible with proper care and attention.
Around 1.5 lakh children in the country are perceived to be autistic, which is one percent of the total number of the people with disabilities.
“Not the outsiders, it was relatives whose unfriendly attitude was sometimes so shocking that I could not hold back my tears,” Salma told The Daily Star.
She added that the conference would create awareness about autism.
Other parents at the conference echoed Salma’s view. They said their children are not getting proper education for shortage of special schools.
At present, only 22 private schools for autistic children are running in the capital in a limited scale.
Participants, however, are happy that autism is recognised by the top level of the government, which they think is the first step to create awareness.
“This international conference on autism shows government’s commitment to the autistic children to ensure their rights to education, treatment and empathy,” said Rownak Hafiz, chairman of Autism Welfare Foundation.
Rownak, who has been working with autistic children for 15 years, said these children are not disabled. They are rather able in a different way, and they need proper training, care and treatment.
The social welfare ministry runs some 15 one-stop service centres across the country to diagnose and manage autism, but the centres face shortage of trained manpower.
Farida Yesmen, executive director of Disabled Rehabilitation and Research Association, said, “We need autism diagnosis units at least at the divisional hospitals. Otherwise, the children outside Dhaka will remain undiagnosed and will not get education and treatment.”
A number of participants at the programme said they suffer a lot due to the lengthy process of diagnosing autism and admitting their child to schools.
Rokhsana Ahmed, a mother of an autistic child, said she had to go from doctor to doctor with her child. The child specialists could not even identify the problem.
She had to migrate from Chittagong to Dhaka just to admit her son to a school.
“When I heard about the conference where the world leaders are participating, I thought the prime minister [Sheikh Hasina] would announce setting up of a shelter home for the autistic children. My child will have no place to go if I die,” she told this correspondent.
Autism affects 1 in every 110 children globally, which is higher than the number of children being affected with HIV/AIDS or Leukemia, according to Autism Speaks.
An estimated 1.5 million people are affected by autism in the US where the prevalence rate is increasing by 10-17 percent every year.
BSMMU and Autism Speaks will hold a three-day workshop starting from Wednesday at BSMMU to educate parents, teachers and therapists on how to manage the children with the problem.
-With The Daily Star input
