Hidayat Alam is an 8 year old child with hearing and speech impairment from birth. He can neither speak nor hear. He comes from Kohli village of Kohli Gram Panchayat of Kaiserganj Block of Bahraich. His father depends upon daily wage labor work for his livelihood and his mother is a housewife. He was enrolled in PS Kohli in November 2017 after intervention of Prajayatna. His parents were initially not interested in send him to school as they did not see any point in him going there due to his hearing disability. However, after a few meetings and insistence during which they were convinced that going to school will help him in making new friends and learn something as well, his parents agreed to send him to the school.
Kalikayatna program is being implemented in PS Kohli and Sri Dinesh Kumar, teacher, regularly participates in the Collectives which are organized by Prajayatna. During the Collectives, he was exposed to the special care that children with special needs require. Although he initially felt that he will not be able to take care of them because he is not trained into it, as a result of these collectives he slowly started including these children also in the classroom processes.
Hidayat was initially uncomfortable in the school. He did not have friends and was also unable to communicate as children around him did not understand his language and expressions. However, he kept coming to the school regularly with his elder brother who also studies in the same school and, over a period of time, has been able to make new friends in the school, thus expanding his social circle. He sits properly in the circles during the classes and participates in the activities conducted there. He did not even know how to hold a pencil properly when he started coming, but now not only holds it but is also able to draw circles on his own, besides scribbling. He is also able to identify his file in the school and puts his papers in it on his own and has learnt how to take permission for going to toilet by gesturing. He sits in the queue with other children while taking his lunch in the school and does not want to skip the school on any day.
His parents are happy with his progress and realize that their decision to enroll him in the school and send him regularly in spite of their initial inhibition has been in his interest. They are hopeful that by coming to the school regularly he will learn a lot of things which he would not have learnt had they kept him in the home itself.