Col Baba form Action For Autism

Col. Baba and his 38 year old son with autism, Vivek graced mitr on 5th jan, begining our Gyaan Budhwaar sessions for 2017 with a bang. As they were introducing themselves and were chatting before the talk, a cat passed by and Vivek, who has a mortal fear of the feline species, gave out a painful cry. It was amazing to watch Mr Baba effortlessly calm Vivek down, gently and firmly with kind words. The close bond between Father and Son was visible throughout the morning, both having lost a wife and mother, 14 years ago, have held hands firmly clasped since.

Col Baba narrated his wife's struggles, the various "dhakkas' they got from all sources, and how Vivek made remarkable progress. After the loss of his wife to the dreaded ALS disease, Mr Baba began working in Action for Autism (AFA), 
http://www.autism-india.org/index.php
as an advisor and fund-raiser. He spoke of the various initiatives  by AFA starting with making Autism count as a disability in the National Trust Bill. This bill has been passed in 2016, and Autism Spectrum Disorder is now considered a disability too. Another initiative of AFA is the Assisted living center called Ananda, in which they are building accommodations and vocational training center for 100 autistic adults to live their later years.It is an ambitious project and construction is going on. 
He had brought along with him a dozen copies a publication made to celebrate 20 years of AFA witha useful collection of articles to help understand the puzzle that is autism.

In the second part of his talk he explained what the National trust was and how the only bill that was passed in the winter session of the parliament in 2016 was the Disability act, which now includes many benefits and concessions for example the use of the disability card for railway concessions. One participant also mentioned using the same for jumping queues in airports, at immigration and ticket counters. Tamil Nadu, Mr Baba said has the maximum benefits for Persons With Disabilities (PWD). participants mentioned being allotted Rs1500 per month, if the card and bank account are instituted for the PWD.

Mr Baba then went on to give information on Legal guardianship and Trust formation. He explained that after the age of 18, all PWD must have a legal guardian. This is not automatically the parent, and to make this document, one needs the Disability card, mentioned above. A legal guardian is a single person, unlike a Trust which can be a group of people or even an NGO. A legal guardian has complete authority over all movable and immovable properties of the PWD. He is under supervision by the govt authority, who may do regular checks on him. A trust, on the other hand works differently. Mr Baba mentioned an organisation called https://www.i-probono.com/ which helps in legal work for PWD.

We were blessed to have him with us.