Rashmi Rekha Sahu
“There is only one pretty child in the world and every mother has it”, so goes the Chinese saying. For Rashmi Rekha Sahu’s mother, her daughter, though, a differently able child is the epitome of courage and fortitude.
Born on 30thApril, 1983, Miss Rashmi Rekha Sahu, the elder daughter, is a person with Trisomy 21 by birth with moderate level of Intellectual Disabilities. She started sitting at the age of four. She has less sensation to surrounding environment. Even she was unable to respond ant bite, while sleeping.
During those days, very less information was available for the remedial part of Down’s syndrome kids. Her early childhood days were managed exclusively with assistance and advice of experts, paediatricians’ and psychiatrists available at that time to develop her self-help skill and mental skill. Until the age of six, she was unable to talk and communicate with the peers. Like other parents, we approached different educational institutions to put our child, but found that she could not cope up with the regular curriculum. Being Intellectual Disable, she was unable to express her desire/ will in front of others. At last, we put her in “HOME AND HOPE, ROURKELA”, a school for mentally challenged children for training and education. At that time, she was very weak in communicating with others. She was also unable to read, write & had no knowledge of money. According to the behavioural assessment, she had many behaviour problems like not listening to parents, talking to herself when she is idle, spitting on others etc. The structured environment at the school helped her understand this world a little better. The routine and the specially designed teaching methods helped improve her sitting tolerance and achieve toilet training as well as the other daily living skills like brushing, bathing, dressing, eating etc. She also learnt need based communication and soon she was able to identify and label objects in her daily environment.
From her childhood, she is very fond of religious activities. Every day during Puja & Arati at home, she used to sit and listen. In addition, we observed that she was very fond of dolls. She used to play with a doll until attains the age of ten. Nevertheless, we made a practice to accompany her whenever & wherever we go. Socially, all our friends accepted her whole-heartedly. Even those friends who were not very close to us treated Rashmi affectionately. She used to communicate freely and meaningfully. Her social skills developed largely. As she got affectionate with all our friends, she used to run and hug them when she saw them.
My second daughter & son proved to be the best friend of her. They naturally developed immense love for Rashmi. They used to take care of her beyond their age. Their utmost love and compassion made their friends love Rashmi equally.
In addition, we observed that, from the early age, she tap her feet every time music reached her ears, even though she understood no words of it. Hence, we thought that perhaps she is interested in dance. With the guidance and support from the experts and the teachers, special efforts have been put to explore her ability to lead life with mentally challenged. We guided her to cope with the situation rather than just accepting the bitter truth. Therefore, instead of wallowing in self-pity, we decided to put her attention to dance. Accordingly, we put her in a Classical Dance School (ODISSI) under the guidance of a prominent classical dance teacher, Late Sri Guru Kashinath Raul. In addition, special emphasis was given to continue dance practice at home for which we engaged a dance teacher. She used to practice dance two to three hours daily in home and slowly improved a lot like a general ward. Simultaneously, the special teachers of the school have taken up special efforts and practices all the services that are central to her development at most efficient level. Particularly the sports teacher took lot of pain in the field of sports by which she was able to won many medals in state & national level special Olympic Games. We, the parents also practiced the same activities in the house and as result of that; she has shown good progress in all the concerned areas. She is able to cope with the peers and familiar persons and interact well with them. She used to perform dance in different social functions, stages and educational institutions at state and national level and has shown excellent progress.
After attaining age of 16, she joined pre-vocational training centre wing of HOME AND HOPE, Rourkela. She was trained with pre-vocational skills like paper envelope (thunga), paper bag making, flat and cover file making, gardening etc. At the age of 18, she was put under Vocational Training Centre of Parents Association for the Welfare of the Mentally Challenged wing in HOME AND HOPE, Rourkela. There she received training to make items like wax candle and dia (for Diwali & Christmas), jute articles, Rakhee, pot painting, block printing etc. Each task she learnt was broken into a number of steps and taught one at a time. After few years in the vocational centre, she started assisting in the production of these items, which are sold at exhibitions as well at markets.
During her stay at Ranchi (Jharkhanda), she used to involve and giving training to mentally challenged children school and a school for downtrodden children at Ranchi in Jharkhand state in following fields: dance, candle & dia making, jute making, rakhi making, pot painting, block printing etc.
After retirement from service, we settled at Bhubaneswar for her betterment and put her in a special school “OPEN LEARNING SYSTEMS, Bhubaneswar”. Here she learnt to make Chocolate in the vocational unit with the guidance of the teachers. Presently she is engaged in making herbal soaps (natural handmade soap) in “VRIDDHI”, a training cum production centre initiative taken by department of SSEPWD (Social Security and Empowerment of Person with Disability), Government of Orissa.
Presently, she is also a member of self-advocacy team in Odisha, a unit of SASI (SELF ADVOCACY SOCIETY OF INDIA). She is involved as volunteer in Sashakt Campaign, a movement for awareness of disability Act, 2016, initiated by Swabhiman, Bhubaneswar.
Rashmi has a favour and taste for seeing TV, films. She likes music, specifically film songs very much and during travel, she uses earphone to hear music from the tablet and mobile. She is very methodical and meticulous in her work. Whenever she visits relatives, faraway places, she manages everything by herself such as attending to calls of nature, bathing and keeping dirty clothes in separate place. She always used to keep all her belongings safe so that she does not forget or misplace her belongings.
With the support, guidance and proper training by the schoolteachers, dance teacher, family members and other relatives she has achieved what many “normal” people only dream of. Her turning point was, when she won (National level) in National Festival of Dance and Music, conducted by National Institute of Mentally Handicaps (NIMH), Secundarabad in the year 1999. Her confident and graceful movements teamed with beautiful facial expressions make her performances a pleasure to watch. To-day she performs classical (Odissi), semi-classical, folk and modern dance forms at different stages and won many State and National accolades for her achievements.
To mention few of her achievements are:
(A). Achievements in the field of dance:
“State Award-2012” in recognition of outstanding achievements made and excellent standard set in different fields, Govt. Of Orissa honored by presenting a Citation (Manapatra) by honorable Chief Minister of Orissa at Utkal Diwas Celebration Function at Bhubaneswar on 01.04.2012.
“National Award For The Empowerment Of Persons With Disability, 2011” in recognition of outstanding performance among persons with disability in the field of Art/Culture/literature by honorable Union Ministry Of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government Of India, in a function held at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on 3rd.December, 2011, on the occasion of the World Disable Day.
“National Trust Award-2007” in recognition of outstanding achievements made and excellent standard set, The National Trust(Ministry Of Social Justice & Empowerment, Govt. of India) honored as the Best Person with Disability for The Year 2006-07 by the honorable Ministry Of Social Justice and Empowerment, Govt. Of India, at New -Delhi on 26.09.2007.
“Red Cross Samman-2007” by seeing the overall achievements in Classical dance and sports, Indian Red Cross Society, Orissa honored for the Year-2007 by honorable Chief Minister Of Orissa at Utkal Diwas Celebration Function at Bhubaneswar on 01.04.2007.
“Anjali Excellence Award-2010” by seeing the multi-skill activity in the National Children’s Festival (Anjali Programme) by honorable Chief Minister Of Orissa at Bhubaneswar.
“Samarthya-2006” Awarded 3rd Prize in Fancy Dress competition conducted by Women and Child Development Department, Govt. Of Orissa.
“Ability Utsav-2000” for Dance and Music, conducted by YMCA, New Delhi awarded 3rd. Prize (National Level) in classical dance of India category.
National Festival of Dance and Music-1999, Conducted by “National Institute Of Mentally Handicaps (NIMH), Secunderabad” awarded 3rd Prize (National Level).
Winner of JHOOM India-2017 (A State Level Talent Reality Show).
Participated in Drama and theatres in stage
She also passed Sangeet Visharad Pratham Khand (IV- Year), conducted by Pracheen Kala Kendra, Chandigarh in Classical Odissi dance
(B). Achievements in the field of sports:
Participated in “Special Olympic Bharat, National Game – 2005”, held at Nehru Stadium, New Delhi and awarded:
Gold : In 100 Meters Walking
Bronze : In 50 Meters Running
Also participated State level Olympic Games and awarded many medals in different sports.
(C). Achievements in the field of vocational activities:
Candle making, Jute making, Rakhi making, Chocolate making, Agarbati Making Flat and Cover file making, Pot Painting, Block Printing, Herbal soap.
This remarkable journey, achievements and maximizing potential of Rashmi, has made our lives richer in ways we never thought of. We are very proud on her progress and achievements. It is all about our attitude and approach towards our child that makes the child acceptable to the society.
In the words of her mother: “If you accept the child with utmost love and care, sooner or later the whole humanity is compelled to do the same. One should not be ashamed of their special child, because it can halt or hamper the growth of their child. We need to accept our child with utmost love and affection, focusing on our task and very importantly filtering the negative aspects of the society and using the positive for the welfare of the child. To-day Rashmi has become self sufficient and I owe it to the entire society for her magical development. Being mother of a special child, I request all the parents not to wallow in self-pity and ignore their special child, but try to explore their field of interest and give them proper training and expose them, so that one day they will stand in the society and feel proud of them. At last, I pray to Almighty to bestow his blessing on our ward to live her independent life with courage and confidence”.
