SHILLONG: The director of Sanker, Sandy Syiem, stressed on the need of having more counselors and autism experts to teach children with autism which cannot be treated with medicines.
Speaking to reporters after the observation of ‘World Autism Awareness Day-2018’ on Monday, he bemoaned the dearth of mental health professionals in the country.
“Children with autism are no different from other children. We should not look down upon them,” he said.
According to Syiem, in India one out of 100 children are autistic while worldwide the figure comes to one out of 60. “In the state of Meghalaya, the figure is almost the same. The only problem is people are not coming forward. But because of these awareness programmes, people are gradually coming forward,” he said.
The autistic children were also not getting any benefit from the state government which added to the problem faced by the children, Syiem said.
Currently, Sanker has 25 patients with autism. The autism rally was taken out from Thangkhiew Petrol Pump to Don Bosco Museum. The rally was followed by a public discussion at Sacred Heart Theological College Hall.