HEALTH

‘Treat the blind as normal’
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 16 — A blind person or a child ought to be treated as a normal person or a child first and a visually impaired later, says Dr S.R. Mittal, a reader in the Department of Teachers Training and non-Formal Education in Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi. He is of the view that needs of these people are no different and only the means and techniques used to achieve these are different.

Dr Mittal was in the city yesterday to address the delegates attending the WHO workshop on orientation training of master trainers for disability prevention and rehabilitation” at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32. The emphasis while training a blind child should be on equipping him to use his remaining senses, such as those of touch, hearing, smell, taste and movement. These should be developed to an optimum level to compensate his loss of sight to a large extent.

He also stressed on the need to counsel the parents with regard to the treatment they give to the blind child in the family. “He should not be treated differently from that of the normal child’’, he adds. The self-concept of such children has to be positive so that they are able to identify their potential and abilities in life.

Quoting a definition of blindness by an American, Dr Mittal said “blindness simply meant inconvenience caused by loss of sight. These people can achieve a lot in their lifetime and have made a mark in various areas. The use of computers and the facility of e-mail have further reduced their handicap.

It is important to train them in the activities of daily living, such as eating, bathing, toilet training, social communication and walking as they are not exposed to imitative learning. It is equally important to train them in the use of Braille touch and other writing devices such as Taylor frame used for calculations, abacus and even computers at an appropriate stage of education.

Talking about psycho-social aspects of rehabilitation, he said this was required in case of the newly blinded person. They are required to learn some new ways of doing things, which is different from the way they used to do it earlier when they could see.

Dr Mittal further pointed out that anybody helping a blind person was not doing a charity. Any person meeting a blind person should meet him just as he would meet any of his other counterpart in the society. The facilities which have been provided for the visually impaired in the Act should be made available to them, for instance, 3 per cent reservation in admission to various courses.

The Rehabilitation Council of India, in collaboration with the Indira Gandhi National Open University, will shortly telecast disability education programmes on television for the benefit of parents and other community members. Organising workshops and seminars on the topic in rural areas and educational institutions will help spread awareness about disability and its prevention. It is equally important to make the disabled persons understand the spirit of the Act, so that they can avail the benefits of the same.

Bose is PGI faculty body chief
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 16 — Prof S.M. Bose, The PGI Professor of Surgery, was unanimously elected the President of the PGI Faculty Association at its meeting held today in the APC auditorium. Prof Sudha Suri, Head of the Department of Radio Diagnosis had proposed his name and it had been seconded by Dr K.L.N. Rao of the Department of Paediatric Surgery.

Prof Suri, President of the association for the past one year, wanted to step down for personal reasons, according to an information. The other members of the executive who were renominated today included Dr Rakesh Sehgal of the Department of Parasitology — Vice-President of the body; Dr Narasimhan of the Department of Paediatric Surgery — General Secretary; Dr D.P. Singh of the Department of Radiotherapy — Joint Secretary; and Dr M.K. Dogra of the Department of Ophthalmology — Treasurer.

They took a serious view of the allegations regarding a nexus between doctors, chemists and diagnostic centres as reported in a section of the Press. They decided to suggest the PGI Director to constitute a committee of faculty members for working out ways to improve the hospital services. They also proposed package deals for various treatments so that patients were not cheated by chemists. On the issue of a report about the CT scan scam, Ms Suri said the only machine in the PGI could do only about 14 CTs a day. “If 25 scans are to be done in a day, patients need not go anywhere else for the purpose. Due to a handful of persons who indulge in unethical practices, the image of all doctors is maligned,” she said.

Field visit for delegates
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 16 — The delegates who participated in the WHO workshop on Orientation training of masters training for disability prevention and rehabilitation were taken on a field visit to sensitise them about the practical aspects of disability prevention and rehabilitation of the disabled yesterday.

They were taken to the Institute for the Blind, Sector 26. They were also given a demonstration of the gadgets used by the visually handicapped, including computers. The other institutes visited by them include Government Institute of Mentally retarded children, Sector 32; Prayaas Rehabilitation Centre, Sector 38, and Nevedac Prosthetic Centre, Zirakpur.

Presiding over the valedictory function, Dr RK Srivastava, Additional Director-General of Health Services, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, called upon the delegates to take the message to the peripheral grass levels so that the real purpose of the workshop was fulfilled. He assured government support in this direction.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr VK Kak, Director Principal, GMCH-32, expressed satisfaction that the government gave them an opportunity to hold the workshop. Dr Raj Bahadur, nodal officer of the workshop, said he was prepared to organise the next chain of workshop for training.

A group of 25 delegates, including senior Professors from three medical colleges of Punjab, attended the workshop. The participants were from the Departments of Ophthalmology, ENT,Orthopaedics and Psychiatry.

140 donate blood
From Our Correspondent

SAS NAGAR, Sept 16 — The local Baba Sheikh Farid Blood Donors Council organised a blood donation camp at the Phase 2 Community Centre here today.

At the camp, which was inaugurated by the PUDA Additional Chief Administrator, Mr Dipinder Singh, 140 persons donated blood. Thirty five persons pledged to donate their eyes. 

Ms Satwant Kaur Sandhu, a minister, said donating one’s blood did not bring about any weakness in the body. She called upon people to donate blood.

The minister announced that she would give a grant of more than Rs 10,000 to the council. The exact amount, she said, would be determined after finding out the fund position in her department.

Mr Parag Raj Sharma, who had donated blood 101 times, was honoured by the council. Mementos were also given to the donors.

SPORT

Punjab boys win tug-of-war championship

PANCHKULA, Sept 16 — Punjab boys and Manipur girls won the second sub-junior national tug-of-war championship, which concluded at the Basic Training Centre of the ITBP at Bhanu, near here, today.

In the keenly-contested finals, Punjab boys lost the first pull to Delhi boys, but bounced back by winning the second. In the deciding pull, it was the Punjab team all the way and they defeated their rivals in less than a minute, retaining the title they won last year at Cuttack.

However, the Punjab girls failed to repeat the success of their male counterparts. Losing the first and third pulls to the Manipur girls, they just managed to win the second pull.

Earlier, during the day the Punjab boys had an easy victory over the Orissa as they won the two straight pulls. In the second semi-final, Delhi defeated Chandigarh. In the first pull, Chandigarh held Delhi for three minutes before losing the two other pulls.

In the girls section, Manipur defeated Delhi in the straight pulls in the second semi-final. Punjab, however, found it hard to defeat Orissa in straight pulls.

Chandigarh boys defeated Orissa and in the girls section, Orissa defeated Delhi, to bag the third position.

The Director-General of the ITBP and the president of the Tug-of-War Federation of India, Mr Gautam Kaul, gave away the prizes. The General Secretary of the federation, Mr Madan Mohan, was also present.

Air Force men win hockey championship
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Sept 16 — 3BRD Air Force team finally checkmated the defending champions, Rock Rovers, at 6-4 through a tie-breaker to wrap up the men title in the 18th Chandigarh State hockey championship which concluded this evening at Sector 42 Hockey Stadium. Rock Rovers began on a sound footing with Inderjit Singh opening account for the team by scoring first goal of the match in 10th minute.

This was equalised by Satbir Singh of 3BRD in the 20th minute of the match. At the end of first half, the scores were levelled at 1-1. In the second half, both the teams could not make any further headway and ultimately result was decided through a tie-breaker. 

Cricket tourney

United India Insurance Company Limited, Chandigarh, and the Reserve Bank of India won their respective matches by beating CITCO by four runs and the Oriental Insurance Corporation by seven wickets respectively in the second Inter-Financial Sector Teams Cricket Tournament played here at Gursagar grounds today.

Brief scores: 1st match: UAC — 170 for four (Ajay Sharma 66, Subhash 55 n.o., Vijay 24, Narinder Kwatra 2 for 37); CITCO — 166 for nine in 25 overs (Narinder Kwatra 74, M.S. Rana 20, Raj Kumar 4 for 32).

IInd match: OIC — 204 for five (Sandeep Mahajan 72, Vipin Sharma 42, Harminder Kakku 2 for 26, Ravinder 2 for 30): RBI — 206 for three in 24.4 overs (Ravinder 66 n.o., Harminder Kaku 30, Kulwant Singh 35 n.o.).