School on wheels for children with special needs flagged off in Panchkula

Dhanwantari Ayurvedic College and Hospital in Sector 46, Chandigarh, will bear the annual expenditure of ₹15 lakh needed to run the buses

Kalam Express, a “school on wheels” for children with special needs, was flagged off on Thursday, over four years after it was shut because of financial constraints.

The buses, billed “Kalam Express”, are equipped with a television, laptop library, sports as well as teaching and physiotherapy kits. (HT Photo)

Dhanwantari Ayurvedic College and Hospital in Sector 46, Chandigarh, will bear the annual expenditure of ₹15 lakh needed to run the buses, two of which were flagged off by Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) chief administrator Ajit Balaji Joshi and deputy commissioner Sushil Sarwan from Mansa Devi.

The project was originally launched amid much fanfare under the District Red Cross Society in August 2017, but was shut down for want of funds.

The buses are equipped with a television, laptop library, sports as well as teaching and physiotherapy kits. Ramps have been provided for children with special needs to board the bus, where children can interact with each other, get help in learning and physical therapy.

The buses will cater to children with visual, hearing, speech impediments and those with intellectual disabilities. The teaching methods will vary depending on each child’s IQ.

They will operate six days a week and have special teachers, physiotherapists and, if necessary, speech therapists. They are slated to go door-to-door in slum areas, colonies and villages to provide education to children with special needs and are unable to attend school.

The Kalam Express project was inaugurated by the then governor of Haryana Kaptan Singh Solanki on Independence Day in 2017. The school first opened in Jind in 2015 and also became operational in Chandigarh in June 2016, before making its way to Panchkula.

Joshi said when he was the Jind deputy commissioner, he got the old buses of civil hospital repaired and named them Kalam Express on the advice of additional DC Gauri Parashar.

He said 10 ambulances from Hero Group will provide health facilities to disabled children and 10 centres of integrated education were working in the district for the education of disabled children. He added that special teachers had been appointed to educate them.

Panchkula deputy commissioner Sushil Sarwan said, “Children are the future of the country. By irrigating the sapling of Kalam Express which has been planted in the name of former President Abdul Kalam, we will contribute in transforming it into a tree.”

Teams from civil hospital and Shri Dhanwantri Ayurvedic College and Hospital held a medical check-up for the attendees of the event.