Overcoming disability in India: Gama's story

Gama now 15, supporting his family by stitching collars and cuffs

On a bright sunny morning at the age of 10 Gama stepped into a special school in Sangam Vihar. The school, run by Plan’s local partner – CASP – and its teachers were to help Gama improve his life forever.

Gama was born into a family of six in Sangam Vihar, an urban slum in Delhi, India. He was born with a disability: he could not speak or hear. His father, a tailor by profession, barely earned enough to raise him and his two younger siblings, and could not pay for special care for him. When he first joined the special school, Gama found it quite difficult to adjust to the school environment as he had never been away from home.

Thanks to the assistance of the schoolteachers he eventually succeeded in settling in at school and socialising with other children. With the help of the school’s speech therapist, Gama was then taken to the National Institute of Hearing Handicap for a check-up and was provided with a hearing aid which enabled him to hear.

With continued attendance at the school, Gama soon learned to communicate using sign language. The speech therapist continued to provide speech training to Gama and also guided the school staff in training Gama by touching neck, hand and ears. Soon, he had learned the alphabet and numbers and could recognise fruits, vegetables, colours and body parts.

It took him nearly one year, but Gama also learned to write.

When Gama was unable to attend school, the school staff went to visit him at home, making sure there was no interruption in his development. After more than a year, Gama had begun treating the school as his second home and would often arrive early. After a while, he joined art and craft classes along with some older children. He was quite good at drawing and used his creative skills to learn origami.

Seeing the enthusiasm with which the children participated in arts and crafts classes, CASP/Plan staff decided to provide tailoring classes too. Gama too joined the classes and soon became proficient in tailoring. Having learned the skill at school, he perfected it at home by helping his father. He soon started manufacturing flags at home and continued to learn various creative skills at school, including file binding, greeting card making, papier mache, toy making, block, marble and madhubani painting.

Then on August last year, Gama faced his biggest challenge; his father passed away and the responsibility of caring for the family came to rest with Gama, who was the eldest son in the family.

He rose to the challenge. With the help of staff at school, he found employment in an export house near his home where he now works at stitching collars and cuffs. With his earnings, he is now supporting his entire family.

Thanks to the support of the teachers at the special school, Gama has come a long way; he could not hear or speak at birth and he is now shouldering the responsibility of an entire household.