Mumbai
(AFP) - The nine-year-old boy dressed in blue lay listlessly on the pavement in
the scorching Mumbai summer afternoon, his ankle tethered with rope to a bus
stop, unheeded by pedestrians strolling past.
Lakhan
Kale cannot hear or speak and suffers from cerebral palsy and epilepsy, so his
grandmother and carer tied him up to keep him safe while she went to work,
selling toys and flower garlands on the city's roadsides.
"What
else can I do? He can't talk, so how will he tell anyone if he gets lost?"
said homeless Sakhubai Kale, 66, who raised Lakhan on the street by the bus
stop shaded by the hanging roots of a banyan tree.
Lakhan's
father died several years ago and his mother walked out on the family, his
grandmother told AFP.
A
photograph of him tied up appeared in a local newspaper this week, sparking
concerns among charities and the police, and he has since been taken into care
at a government-run institution.
But
activists say his plight on the streets comes as little surprise in India,
where those with disabilities face daily stigma and discrimination and a lack
of facilities to assist them.
Kale said Lakhan "tends to wander off" and that there was no one else to stop him walking into traffic while she and her 12-year-old granddaughter, Rekha, were out making a living.
At
night she would tie him to her own leg as they slept on the pavement so she
would know if he tried to walk away.
"I
am a single old woman. Nobody paid attention to me until the newspaper
report," she said.
"He
was in a special school, but they sent him back."
Social
worker Meena Mutha has since managed to place Lakhan in a state-run south
Mumbai home, which takes in a range of needy children from the disabled to the
destitute.
"Residental
homes are very, very few. There's a major need for the government to do
something, a social responsibility to provide residential centres for children
like Lakhan," said Mutha, a trustee at the Manav Foundation helping people
with mental illness.
She
said government-run centres that put together children with different needs did
not always have the range of facilities required.
"They
don't have the infrastructure, the staff," said Mutha. Conversely,
non-government organisations "have expertise, but not the space," she
said, highlighting the squeeze on land in the densely-packed city.
Across
India, the 40 to 60 million people with disabilities often face similar
struggles to get the help they need, activists say.
"There's
no collective responsibility. You have a disabled child, you look after
it," said Varsha Hooja, chief executive at ADAPT, another charity working
with disabled young adults and children.
- No state support -
Hooja said she had seen other cases of parents locking
up children with disabilities while they go to work.
"The
state gives no support," she said.
A long-awaited bill was introduced into the Indian
parliament in February aiming to give disabled people equal rights -- including
access to education, employment and legal redress against discrimination -- but
it has yet to be passed.
Lawyer Rajive Raturi was on the committee that began
drafting the bill five years ago, and said the Congress party-led government
which has just lost power had pushed through a "complete dilution" of
the original, especially on sections regarding women and children with
disabilities.
Raturi,
who handles disability cases at the Human Rights Law Network, said he hoped the
new 
parliament elected this month, dominated by incoming prime minister
Narendra Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, would "listen to the
stakeholders and then make a decision".
parliament elected this month, dominated by incoming prime minister
Narendra Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, would "listen to the
stakeholders and then make a decision".
"We
can't change attitudes with an act but if the bill has the right provisions,
people will think twice," he said.
Back by the Mumbai bus stop, Kale squatted on the
pavement drinking chai and eating bread on the morning after bidding a tearful
goodbye to her grandson.
She was hopeful she would get to see him regularly
once she acquired an official identity card that would allow her to visit the
centre.
"I
am very happy," she said. "What else would I want other than for him
to be looked after?"
source:news.yahoo.com
