Guwahati, Feb. 14: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today said the government would work in a mission mode to mitigate hearing impairment in children from the state.
Gogoi while inaugurating Mission Shravan, a project for hearing impaired here this morning, said his government wants to rehabilitate children who are hearing impaired and make them an integral part of mainstream society.
According to the 2011 census, there are 1,01577 cases of hearing impairment in Assam of which 5,092 are in the age group of 0-4 years and 28,744 in the age group 0-19 years.
Mission Shravan is a joint collaboration of Prerana, an NGO of Assam's IAS officers' wives and Ideal Charity of Manchester, UK. Under the project that has been supported by the National Health Mission (NHM), the UK-based charitable organisation will provide modern hearing aids to deaf children in the state free of cost.
Gogoi, who distributed hearing aids among several children, said the state government would provide all logistic support and expertise for successful implementation of the project. He announced Rs 20 crore as immediate financial support.
"Let us replicate the success story of Operation Smile, a project to correct facial deformities in children in Mission Shravan too. Operation Smile is a big success in Assam," Gogoi said.
In 2009, Operation Smile, a worldwide children's medical charity, presented the Universal Smile Award to Gogoi for his dedication and leadership in establishing a public-private partnership towards making Assam the first cleft-free state in India.
An official in the health department said the NHM would set up a comprehensive care centre at Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here to treat and rehabilitate children with hearing impairments. Funds for the proposed centre will be earmarked under the state programme implementation plan 2016-17 of NHM.
Prerana president Suman Pipersenia said her NGO's objective was to help the individuals, especially children with hearing impairment, lead a useful, happy and fulfilling life.
"Children with hearing impairment should get a sound academic environment which will prove them opportunity, perhaps their only opportunity, for a self-reliant and dignified life. Sound is the key to our heart," she said.
Pipersenia appreciated Gogoi for his vision and encouragement for the project. She said her NGO had been working to detect as many as children with hearing impairments by holding medical camps across the state. "Once they are detected it becomes easier to treat and rehabilitate them," Pipersenia said.
Indian-born doctor associated with Ideal Charity of Manchester, UK, Narveswar Sinha, said his NGO would continue to provide hearing aids to Assam free of cost.
