LENS Foundation Launches ‘LDexplained’, India’s First Comprehensive Resource Website On Learning Disabilities

 

The website aims to help families, parents, and guardians of children with learning disabilities to better understand and manage the disabilities and equip themselves for a better future

New Delhi :  The LENS (Learning, Empowerment, Nutrition and Skill Development) Foundation has launched LDExplained, India’s first comprehensive resource website on learning disabilities among children and young adults.

 

According to a report by UNESCO between 10 and12 per cent of the school going children have learning disabilities. This roughly means that in a given Indian classroom there are at least four children with learning disabilities. LDExplained is designed for all stakeholders right from the family of the affected child to the policymaker who needs to work together to help the child cope with learning disabilities. For a parent or a guardian of a child with special needs who wants to help them learn to manage their challenges and deal with the world better; or for an educator keen to upgrade skills to help their students learn better, LDExplained is an excellent repository of knowledge and information on various learning disabilities, mental health wellness & management. The website covers coping and improvement strategies as well as ways to keep abreast with the latest research and methodologies developed nationally and globally.

 

Some of the key aspects of LDExplained include categorization of concepts of learning disabilities according to age brackets, the explanation of processes involved in identifying different types of learning disabilities, especially understanding early signs in children, discussion on rights of the affected child, policy support from school boards and local governments, networks, forums, support groups of parents of affected children, educators, and therapists. The website will also have a growing database of health professionals, counsellors, therapists, and educators who specialize in learning disabilities across India, etc.

 peaking about the website, Ketki Agarwal, Co-Founder & Trustee at LENS Foundation said, “The website has been a labor of love and we are thrilled to finally launch LDExplained. There has been a lot of confusion among parents and families about how to deal with children and young adults with special needs. Only if you are armed with the right amount of knowledge and information, you can handle it optimally for everyone involved.”

 

She further adds, “We encourage everyone to spread the word so that we can help and support people and families to not only cope with the challenges but also to be able to add value to the child’s life and help them prepare for a positive and strong future.”

 

The website, helps readers understand concepts of learning disabilities, coping strategies, parents’ role, the contribution of schools, policy support et al. The website is live already but you will see a lot of improvisations with time. One can subscribe to the newsletter for timely updates on information, relevant media articles on day-to-day topics, etc. There is a blog section that has reading material, generic articles from across the globe on learning disabilities.

Source:indiaeducationdiary.in, 16/02/22

Current Affairs- February 18, 2022

 

INDIA

– Karnataka Government issues circular restricting any religious attire within educational institutions

– Asia’s largest tribal festival, the Medaram Jathara, being celebrated in Telangana from February 16 to 19

– Maharashtra: India’s first water taxi service inaugurated connecting Navi Mumbai to mainland Mumbai

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– SC stays Punjab & Haryana High court order staying 75% quota in private sector jobs for Haryana residents

– Karnataka High Court strikes down state government’s ban on online gaming

– Power Ministry notifies Green Hydrogen/ Green Ammonia Policy to replace fossil fuels

– Nepal to become first country to deploy India’s UPI (Unified Payments Interface) platform for digitalisation of cash transactions

WORLD

– First meeting of G20 Finance Ministers & Central Bank Governors under G20 Presidency of Indonesia held

New India Literacy Programme

 The Government of India approved the New India Literacy Programme scheme for the fiscal years 2022-2027 that will cover all areas of adult education and match with the national education policy 2020.

Overview:

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has announced the ‘New India Literacy Programme’ for the next five years, to cover all aspects of adult education. The ministry has decided to use the term ‘Education for All’ instead of ‘Adult Education,’ because the previous term didn’t represent all non-literates who are in the age group of 15 years and above.

This programme is expected to cost Rs 1037.90 crore between 2022 and 2027, with the central government providing Rs 700 crore and the states providing Rs 337.90 crore, respectively.

Implementation of the scheme

Through volunteerism, in an online mode, this newly launched scheme will be implemented. Face-to-face training, workshops and orientation for volunteers will be arranged. All available information and resources will be made available digitally so that registered volunteers can easily access them via digital channels such as radio, television, portals and mobile phone-based free open-source apps.

The Ministry of Education will be the implementing ministry of this scheme.

The objective of the scheme

This scheme’s objectives are to teach not only foundational numeracy and literacy, but also critical life skills such as digital literacy, financial literacy, awareness and health care, commercial skills, education and child care, and family welfare. Vocational skills development will also be focused upon so that obtaining local employment becomes easier and basic education including preparatory, middle, and secondary education.

Education courses in sciences, arts, culture, technology, recreation, and sports as well as various other areas of interest to local learners, such as more advanced material on key life skills, are also to be included under this programme.

The target of this scheme

The target for Foundational Literacy and Numeracy for FY 2022-27 is five crore learners using the Online Teaching, Learning, and Assessment System (OTLAS), which was developed in collaboration with NCERT, the National Informatics Centre, and NIOS and allows a learner to register with essential information such as date of birth, name, Aadhaar number, gender and mobile number.

Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs

 Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr Virendra Kumar is scheduled to launch the “Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED)” on February 16, 2022.

Highlights

Scheme will be launched for the welfare of De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities (DNCs) at Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.

How is this community deprived?

• DNTs are the most neglected, marginalized and economically & socially deprived communities.
• They have been living a life of destitution for generations.
• They have escaped attention of developmental framework and thus are deprived of support unlike SCs and STs.
• They never had access to private land or home ownership, historically.
• These tribes used forests and grazing lands for residential use and their livelihood.

National Commission for De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribe

Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment decided to constitute a “National Commission for De-Notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes”. It was constituted under the Chairmanship of Bhiku Ramji Idate, for a period of three years. Commission submitted its report in December, 2017. In the report, commission prepared draft lists and details of number of communities.

Constitution of Development & Welfare Board for DNCs

On the basis of recommendations of National Commission, Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment constituted “Development and Welfare Board for De-notified, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Communities (DWBDNCs)” in 2019. Board has been tasked to formulate and implement welfare and development programmes for DNCs.

Outlay of the scheme

Under the scheme, approximately Rs 200 crore will be spent over a period of 5 years, starting from 2021-22 to 2025-26.

Components of the scheme

The Scheme comprises of four components:

1. To provide coaching of good quality for candidates from these communities, in order to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
2. Free coaching for DNT Students has been envisioned for educational empowerment of these communities. This component was added with the objective of providing good coaching quality for DNT candidates for enabling them to appear in competitive examinations or take admission to professional courses viz., medicine, engineering, MBA, etc.
3. To provide health insurance to these Communities.
4. To facilitate livelihoods initiative at community level, in a bid to build and strengthen small clusters of DNT/NT/SNT Communities institutions.

Portal to implement the scheme

Scheme will be implemented through a portal, that has been developed by Department of Social Justice & Empowerment. Portal comprises of two modules:

1. One for registration of applicant with details of his family, income, Aadhar & bank details, occupation, caste certificate, etc.
2. Second part comprise of scheme component for which applicant wants to seek benefit with his UID.

Quote of the Day February 17, 2022

 

“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.”
Les Brown

“जीवन की उन सीमाओं को छोड़ कर कोई और सीमाएं नहीं हैं जिन्हें आप तय करते हैं।”
लेस ब्राउन

Current Affairs-February 17, 2022

 

INDIA

– Government approves ‘New India Literacy Programme, a new scheme of Adult Education for FYs 2022-27”; term “Adult Education” to be replaced with “Education For All”

– Road Transport & Highways Ministry amends safety norms, use of safety harness and crash helmet must for children below four years on motorcycles

– Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment Dr. Virendra Kumar launches Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNTs (SEED); DNTs are De-notified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Communities

– The Energy and Resources Institute’s (TERI) organising World Sustainable Development Summit on February 16-18 in virtual format

– Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla Rail Link: Longest tunnel of Indian Railways T-49 of 12.758 km length connected

– New envoys: High Commissioner of Tanzania Anisa K. Mbega, Ambassador of Djibouti Isse Abdillahi Assoweh, Ambassador of Serbia Sinisa Pavic and Ambassador of North Macedonia Slobodan Uzunov

– Bollywood music composer and singer Bappi Lahiri dies in Mumbai at 69

ECONOMY & CORPORATE

– Govt. estimates record foodgrains production of 316.06 million tonnes for 2021-22

– Enforcement Directorate arrests K. Ramakrishna the President of Bengaluru-based Sri Guru Raghavendra Sahakara Bank in connection with misappropriation of public deposits to the tune of more than Rs. 1,000 crores

– NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe launches Fintech Open Hackathon

WORLD

– Russian defence ministry announces end of Crimea military drills

– Ukraine: Cyberattacks knocks websites of Ukrainian army, defense ministry and major banks offline

– Air forces of Bangladesh, US to conduct exercise ‘Cope South 22’ on Feb 20-25

SPORTS

– English club Chelsea defeats Brazilian club Palmeiras in final to win FIFA Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi

– National senior volleyball championships in Bhubaneswar: Kerala (women’s), Haryana (men’s) win titles

Our gender gap in contraception needs public policy intervention

 The recently-released fifth round of our National Family and Health Survey (NFHS-5) highlights that there has been a more than 10 percentage-point increase in the use of contraception among currently married women aged 15-49 years: that is, from 53.5% in 2015-16 to 66.7% in 2019-20. A significant jump has been observed in the use of condoms, which rose from 5.6% to 9.5%. It’s noteworthy that despite the near doubling in the use of condoms, female sterilization continues to be the most popular choice, with an adoption rate of 37.9% (NFHS-5), even many years after the inception of family planning as a concept in India

This brings forth a glaring gender divide in the methods of contraception used in India. The divide could imply two things. First, it may indicate greater bodily autonomy exercised by women today; in charge of their own lives and bodies, women could be making their own contraception choices, thereby determining when and how they want to plan their children and careers. Alternatively, this divide could also indicate the deep-rooted patriarchy that exploits and subjugates women. To evaluate which of the two are at work, we need to take a diligent look at our data

According to the NFHS-4, conducted during 2015-16, only about 8% of women were found to make independent decisions on the use of contraception, while for nearly every tenth woman, it was the husband who decided contraception use. The irony is that while it is husbands who decide the method, the actual burden of it falls on women. Ipso facto, female sterilization is the most wide-spread method, with more than a third of India’s sexually-active population opting for it, despite the lower cost and safer procedure of male vasectomy. Interestingly, based on data from NFHS-3 and NFHS-4, we also observe that a higher proportion of women with college or higher levels of education tend to opt for male or female reversible methods of contraception (33.7%) over female sterilization (17.2%). All these facts give credence to the ‘subjugation’ explanation of the divide over the ‘bodily autonomy’ hypothesis outlined above.

These observations have also been highlighted in a recent study published as a working paper by O.P. Jindal Global University in 2021, titled Gender Gap in the Use of Contraception: Evidence from India. The study lends evidence to the pertinent role that women’s education plays in the choice of contraception. The Bihar model is an excellent illustration of this, with the Population Council of India’s director Niranjan Saggurti cited as saying, “The most significant [factor] in the Bihar case is the increase in education—which has translated into increased use of contraception and increased family planning."

Therefore, in addition to educating children, there is an imperative to impart knowledge about the use and benefits of different methods of contraception to the community at large. It is paramount to target such awareness campaigns at both men and women. Special emphasis should be given to convincing men about the relevance of family planning, and hence, the use of several male contraceptive methods that are safer, cheaper and procedurally simpler than female sterilization. This can be done by utilizing the country’s existing network of community health workers, like Asha workers or Anganwaadi workers or Auxiliary Nurse Midwives. However, currently, most of these frontline workers who have the mandate to disseminate information on family planning are females. Additional male workers could also be deployed to ease direct communication with men.

Additionally, India conspicuously has no law on contraception that makes access to a sound sexual health our legal right, despite it being one of the key indicator variables of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (SDG indicator 3.7.1). Inclusion of sexual well-being as our legal right under the ambit of law can ensure that there are no unnecessary restrictions on the advertisement and publicity of contraceptives, thus easing people’s access to information and knowledge on them. Further, such a law could also be used to make the availability and accessibility of contraceptives easier by enrolling the services of Primary Health Centres, particularly to improve access in small towns, peri-urban and in rural areas.

With the introduction of a bill to amend the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, so as to increase the legal age at marriage of girls from 18 to 21 years, the government has taken a step in the right direction. There exists literature that suggests that an increase in the age of marriage for females reduces the total fertility of women (Maitra, 2004). While this would be a relatively direct result of a higher age of marriage, as it simply reduces the reproductive years of married women, a probable indirect consequence of this move could be an improvement in the bargaining power of women, as it may reduce age gaps between husbands and wives.

Further, exceptional pandemic measures like lockdowns and the exigencies of essential supplies have interrupted contraceptive supply chains. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), family planning has been severely affected during this period, with seven out of ten countries affected. According to United Nations Population Fund, of 114 low/middle-income countries, more than 47 million women were unable to access contraceptives. India alone, as per the report Resilience, Adaptation and Action: MSI’s Response to Covid-19, witnessed 650,000 unwanted pregnancies during the covid pandemic.

Therefore, it is a need of the hour that sexual and reproductive health become a priority at the policy level. Fostering better informed and healthier reproductive behaviour among the country’s masses is a long-term endeavour that should not cease on account of a health emergency.

Sonal Dua, Aditi Singhal & Divya Gupta are assistant professors, O.P. Jindal Global University

Source: Mintepaper, 16/02/22