For children from the National Institute of People with Intellectual Disabilities (NIPID), Independence Day was a long one. After all, they had to wake up at 2 am to make their way to the Red Fort. But the energy at the section demarcated for differently abled children was like that at a concert — with frenzied cheering and clapping at the sight of the Prime Minister and his speech — translated by four interpreters at the venue.
Dr Lalita, the caretaker accompanying the 12 children from the institute, said, “The lack of sleep hasn’t fazed their excitement. Looks like shouting ‘Jai Hind! Jai Hind!’ with the PM has chased away the exhaustion.” Akash (12) grinned and agreed, and when asked what his favourite part of the programme was, he simply said: “Modi”.
NIPID was one of six institutes for differently abled children that attended the 72nd Independence Day celebration at the Red Fort, as part of a programme initiated by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. A total of 120 children were present.
Sanskrita Bhatia, one of the interpreters who came with 28 children from Sai Swayam Society, said they decided to have four interpreters for the event because they did not want any child to miss out on any part of the speech. “The ministry had asked us how many of us would come for the event, and we recommended four. We’re really happy that they agreed to that, because a lot of times you see events with a hundred audience members and just one interpreter, which is never enough. We wanted to ensure that not a single part of the speech is missed by any child,” she said.
Describing the anticipation in the run-up to the event, she said, “Last evening, children who are day-scholars at our centre were dropped off by their parents to stay the night with us. We spent the evening practising the national anthem in sign language. For a lot of these children, doing that right was very important because it was an opportunity to express and assert themselves as citizens of the country.”
Despite plans to sleep from 10 pm to 2 am, Bhatia said everyone stayed up, and by 1 am, started getting ready.
“We left our centre at west Delhi at 3 am to go to the Institute for the Physically Handicapped’s centre in ITO, where people from all the centres were meeting. The children were fed snacks and security checks were completed. Then we left at 6 am to head to the Red Fort. The process sounds long and tiresome, but really, it added to the entire anticipation,” she said.
At the entry to the Red Fort from Gate 4 of Lal Qila Metro station, a makeshift wooden ramp was installed to make the venue accessible to children on wheelchairs, and a sizeable police force was deployed to make their experience as hassle-free as possible. “Around 40-45 policemen have been assigned for the security of these children. They have travelled in four buses and we have provided them security escort in these. We made sure all security checks for them were done at the meeting centre itself because we didn’t want them to face any problems at the venue,” said a senior police officer.
Some disappointment
After dignitaries and invitees left the premises of the Red Fort Wednesday morning, thousands thronged the heavily secured and barricaded gates of the monument — only to see empty chairs and vast stretches of littered plastic.
Those who had been confined to a screen near the Gurudwara Sisganj Sahib — 500 metres away from the Red Fort — wanted to get a glimpse of the event at least once. However, they were turned away by police.
Facebook comments