This rehab home is a double blessing—it's for disabled orphans

Shantanu Guha Ray May 28, 2001 00:00 IST This rehab home is a double blessing—it's for disabled orphans -0001-11-30T00:00:00+05:53

Kailash Colony, with its fancy bungalows and plush surroundings, is the epitome of South Delhi’s screeching glitz and glamour. But hidden in this luxuriant concrete jungle is a dilapidated house, which, if it had been easily visible, would have stuck out like a sore thumb. But it doesn’t because it’s only chance or careful purveying that can reveal this structure with its almost decaying facade and a few unkempt rooms.

Inside it are scores of children accompanied by three women. It’s a rehabilitation home for children with multiple disabilities requiring round-the-clock attention and care. One of the many that dot our urban landscape nowadays. There is, however, something that starkly distinguishes the Handicapped Children’s Parents Association (hcpa) from other similar institutions: the sad story of its origin.

K. Kumar, one of its founding members, says she was sensitised towards children with multiple disabilities after a particularly gruesome incident 13 years ago. One Satwant Kaur—who had been divorced by her husband because both their children were...