City crowns8230;

Consequently, the Pune Municipal Corporation and all those concerned with the sister-city proposal decided that a statue of the Maratha warrior should be installed there, coinciding with the 370th anniversary celebrations of Chhatrapati Shivaji. The statue will be sent to San Jose by air cargo, and is to be installed there at a colourful ceremony sometime next month.

This work of art, which cost an approximate Rs 1 lakh, is the creation of well-known sculptor B R Khedkar. Keeping in mind the transportation to the USA, the height of the statue is about three and a quarter feet. Over three months of careful work 8211; preparing a mould, casting it, chipping to give shape to the finer details 8211; and the statue in bronze is now ready.

Says the artist, 8220;Over the past five decades, my fingers have moulded many sculptures that dot the cityscape, including many statues of Shivaji 8211; the largest being at Kolhapur and standing about 18 and a half feet tall. But I am proud of this particular creation albeit its small size as it shall represent our city and its ethos in some place in another country. The people there shall have a glimpse of what this man means to us Puneites.8221;

The pride at being chosen for the task is evident in his voice as he tells of the visits of the various PMC officials to his house to see the progress. 8220;Even the commissioner had a look at the model I had prepared with mud and clay, and on receiving his approval, it was cast in bronze.8221; Now ready, it just has to be sent to the place it has been intended for. Truly, Chhatrapati Shivaji is riding high8230; across the seven seas from the city of the Peshwas to the land of Uncle Sam.

8230;the officials and inmates of the Yerawada Central Prison, who are successfully implementing the Greenhouse project inaugurated in the premises of the prison in August last year.

For a while now, the prison authorities have launched a series of ventures, aimed towards the rehabilitation of prisoners. 8220;We teach them different skills so that the inmates are able to pick up the the threads of life once they have served their sentence,8221; says R B Chaudhari, the jail superintendent and in-charge of the project. 8220;When they get back to their families, we want them to be in a position where they can eke out a decent living, and that, in turn, helps them gain their self-respect, which is at its lowest then,8221; he continues. The greenhouse project, designed on the lines of the ones at the Agricultural College and at Urali Kanchan, is another such attempt.

Inaugurated last year, the greenhouse structure was put together, brick by brick, by the prisoners themselves. A construction that would have otherwise cost as much as Rs 2.5 lakh, it was completed in Rs 80,000 by the inmates, with officials from the Mahatma Phule Vidyapeeth advising them about the arrangements in the greenhouse.

Simultaneously, four months were spent preparing the saplings to be planted in the greenhouse, and this again was done by the prisoners. Today, the approximate area of 2,000 sq ft is filled with table palms, Christmas trees, crotons, arekapalms, flowering plants like rose, mogra, jai-jui, gulmohar, hibiscus 8211; their blooms a pretty sight, their fragrance a pleasure to the olfactory senses.

To make this venture self-sufficient as well as to provide monetary remuneration to the workers, the greenhouse also includes a nursery, and the city folk can come here to buy plants. 8220;As a result, we are funding the greenhouse and its maintenance, paying the prisoners Rs 10 per day so they can buy their daily necessities from the prison canteen, and are even making a profit,8221; says Chaudhari proudly.

On the anvil is a vermiculture pit, once again courtesy the prisoners, and expected to cost about Rs 10,000. The manure procured thus will be used for the prison farms.

Every day, the trained hands of the prisoners can be seen carefully nurturing the plants, a responsibility they have taken very seriously, as Chaudhari says.

8230;the Air Force School, Viman Nagar, for its policy of integrating mentally handicapped children with normal children for school gatherings, thus helping them assimilate into the mainstream.

When, in 1994, the Air Force School, Viman Nagar, put up a skit at a programme organised by the Helpo Foundation, it was not just another school function. This drama was different because along with 20 normal children who performed on stage were seven children with mental disabilities. This experiment best exemplifies the spirit of this school in integrating special8217; children into the mainstream.

8220;Segregating mentally handicapped children from society does not help them. They are vulnerable and need love and understanding,8221; says Deepika Parab, principal of the school. 8220;As special children need different attention and have other needs, they cannot be taught in the same class as normal children. Integration, then, is in the sense of conducting extra-curricular activities together.8221;

But how did this idea come about? A successful precedent in the concept of an integrated school had already been set by the Air Force Golden Jubilee School, Delhi. 8220;Prompted by its success, the Air Force School, Viman Nagar, started its special children8217;s unit in 1992 with the active help of the then AFWWA president local Harveen Krishnaswamy,8221; says Parab.

It was not as easy as it sounded. 8220;Most people refused to accept that their children were mentally handicapped. They had to be cajoled into sending their children to this school on a trial basis and we had only five students then,8221; remembers Naima Alam, the sole teacher in charge of the Angels8217;, as the mentally handicapped children are called.

Today, there are 28 children on the roll in the age group of 8 to 21, whose Intelligence Quotient IQ level varies from 20 to 70.

8220;Children easily accept their peers as they are, no matter what their intelligence level. So we thought it would be a good idea to hold certain co-curricular activities like recitation, action rhymes, plays, songs for both together,8221; says Parab. Accordingly, every year, the school conducts competitions where the mentally handicapped children contend with the children from the kindergarten and Std I and II.

8220;The parents have found a change in the children8217;s personality thanks to the integrated policy. The children are now more self-confident and are able to mix easily with other children,8221; says Alam, herself a mother of two mentally handicapped children.

Depending on their IQ level, the Angels8217; are taught written and verbal skills and other activities including the making of chalk, popcorn, rakhis, greeting cards. 8220;Basic training in handling money and recognising weights are also taught so that they can go to shops independently and guard against cheating. As the children also sell the popcorn that they make in school during the lunch break, they also learn to handle money while I supervise,8221; says Alam.

The management has taken keen interest in the progress of the Angels.8217; Recently, the Air Officer Commanding, Air Commodore Harish Masand, who was felicitated for his role in the 1971 Indo-Pak war at a function, donated the cheque he received to the Angels.

Helping mentally handicapped children become self-reliant and a part of the society they live in, this school8217;s efforts are making a difference in their lives.

8230;Vacha Shruti, an infant care centre in Aundh that caters to young deaf children upto four years of age. The therapy centre8217;s Early Intervention Programme for children with hearing impairment8217; uses innovative methods to help children born with a hearing handicap to overcome it at an early age, so as to expedite their integration into society.

Deafness is an invisible handicap. The grave consequences are little known and the hearing-impaired person lives in isolation if detection of the handicap is delayed.

Vacha speech-Shruti hear imparts infant and parent training 8211; the Early Intervention Programme and Mother8217;s Training Programme 8211; according to the individual8217;s needs. This includes speech training, language training, auditory training, family counselling, play therapy to modify the total behaviour of the child.

Vinita Ranadive, professionally qualified from the Shiela Kothavala Institute for the Deaf, Bangalore, started Vacha Shruti in Pune recently. She is specially trained from the Netherlands in the Maternal Reflective Method to teach young deaf children8217; wherein deaf infants are trained in speech and language development.

8220;Once deafness is screen-detected by the paediatrician, ENT specialist and the audiologist, three factors become important in the therapy sessions 8211; counselling of parents especially the mother to cope with their child8217;s handicap, sibling participation and individual therapy of the child,8221; explains Ranadive.

The focus is on the mother 8211; equipping her to take special care of the child and to understand the therapy. The therapist helps the child develop communication skills through activities. 8220;The approach followed is the oral-aural approach, wherein the residual hearing of the child is exploited to the optimum,8221; elaborates Ranadive.

Fun exercises, involving meaningful repetition of the same words, learning of musical instruments which tap the resources of rhythm and vibrations, and audio training, starting with gross sounds going on to live voices, are some of the ways used to get non-verbal messages across. Music plays a crucial role in a deaf child8217;s life and deaf children are taught to create their own music. Through play and action, the child learns to interpret objects and situations.

8220;All this is to prepare the child for reading, to make it easy for the child to go to normal school at the right age, because the aim is to integrate the child in the normal hearing society,8221; says Ranadive. 8220;Early intervention, detection and amplification, along with training, as well as training of the mother of a hearing impaired child is of utmost importance,8221; she adds.

Ranadive, whose centre is located at Anand Park, Aundh, also has facilities for the outstation children and parents to stay there for the short-term training programme. Though the centre emphasises on infants as young as four to five months upto four years, children above that age are not refused.