Why Keralam’s differently abled children are bearing the brunt of withheld Samagra Shiksha funds
Differently abled children in Kerala are losing access to essential therapy and support services due to the withholding of Samagra Shiksha funds by the Union government. Families are struggling to cover increased transportation and medical costs previously subsidized by these grants.
Why it matters
It highlights the human impact of fiscal disputes between state and central governments on vulnerable populations.
Fourteen-year-old Krishnan is autistic and has ADHD (attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder). He has also been getting epileptic fits of late.
Krishnan attends a school where special educators of the Samagra Shiksha Kerala (SSK) visit twice a week to provide therapies. The rest of the days, he comes to the SSK’s south urban resource centre at Government Upper Primary School, Fort, in the Keralam capital to receive the benefits of therapies provided at the autism centre there.
“Krishnan needs medicines that cost at least ₹7,000 a month. We have to find that money from my husband’s earnings as a daily wage labourer,” says Thankamani, Krishnan’s mother.
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