Parents of special children and managements of educational institutions catering for them are set to embark on a protracted protest campaign starting with a token hunger strike in front of the State Secretariat on Wednesday against the alleged apathy on the part of the authorities towards differently abled children and their families.Among the litany of complaints raised by parents and institutions of special children is the State government’s decision to restrict the registration of schools under the Right of Persons with Disabilities (RPwD) Act only to those institutions with a minimum of 20 students.“This flies in the face of the fact that Buds Schools even with a single student aged less than 18 years are eligible to RPwD recognition. This double standard has led to the denial of annual recognition to 47 schools across the State, which has affected the operations of these already functional schools,” said K.M. George, president of Parents Association of Intellectually Disabled (PAID).He also pointed out that the decision to make Standard 10 pass a qualifying criteria for ayahs in special schools had threatened the livelihood of many of those already employed. The introduction of such a new benchmark failed to recognise their years of experience and left them jobless, Mr. George said.A joint protest committee of six organisations working towards the benefit of the differently abled will spearhead the protest campaign. The protest committee represented by Roy Mathew Vadakkel, chairman, Thankamani Teacher, convener, and Mr. George, co-coordinator, addressed the media here on Monday.It was pointed out that of the ₹48 crore annual package for the differently abled announced in the 2023-24 State Budget, only ₹15 crore was released, while the annual package for this year has been further cut short to mere ₹10 crore.The committee said that limiting the family pension eligible for the differently abled to those with a monthly income of less than ₹5,000 has left most families out of the welfare scheme. This, the committee said, was an inhuman measure.The committee also raised the issue of overdue of the paltry monthly assistance of ₹600 given to informal caregivers looking after bedridden persons under the Aswasakiranam project of the Kerala Social Security Mission (KSSM). The State government has also stopped paying the premium for the Centre’s Niramaya health insurance which guaranteed affordable health insurance to the differently abled, rued Mr. George. Published – September 09, 2024 09:40 pm IST