Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot Interacts with Master Trainers at National Workshop on Autism Tools INCLEN and ISAA

Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot, Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment interacted with the Master Trainers from all parts of the country at the ‘National Training Workshop on Autism using International Clinical Epidemiology Network (INCLEN) and Indian Scale of Assessment of Autism (ISAA) Tools’ organized by the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment here today. The workshop has been organized by The National Trust under M/o SJ&E in collaboration with Child Neurology Division, Department of Pediatrics, AIIMS, New Delhi and is the first of its kind in India. More than 75 professionals (Clinical Psychologist, Pediatrician and Psychiatrist) participated from 18 States.

Interacting with the Master Trainers, Shri Gehlot said that it is very difficult to distinguish a child suffering from Autism and that is why utmost care needs to be taken in their treatment. These children need love and affection from all persons and should not be treated differently. Now the National Trust has taken a novel initiative to identify all such children and to train Master Trainers for their treatment. The aim of the workshop is to train and empower health care professionals like paediatricians, psychologists & psychiatrists to be trained as Master Trainers. These Master Trainer will further train required number of professionals in their respective States.  He assured all participants of all cooperation from his ministry in this regard.

In this workshop, in order to maintain uniformity and standard in assessment of autism, two types of assessment tools are being recommended, one is INCLEN Tool developed under INCLEN study – “Neuro Developmental Disorder in Children in India”, undertaken under the guidance of Dr. N K Arora, Executive Director, INCLEN Study. The other tool is ISAA – Ïndian Scale of Assessment of Autism”, developed by the Ministry of SJ&E through NIMH, as a research project. The Resource Persons and Faculties are from All India Institute of Medical Science and National Institute for Mentally Handicapped. Prof. Vinod K Paul, Head, Deptt. of Pediatrics, Prof. Sheffali Gulati, Child Neurology Division, Deptt. of Pediatrics, AIIMS and other Professionals provided training on Autism using INCLEN Tool and Dr Saroj Arya and Dr Beenapani Mohapatra, NIMH provided training using ISAA Tool.

Autism is a neuro-developmental disorder spanning entire life. There is no definitive cure. It is of paramount importance that children with Autism are identified early and started on intervention. The effect of autism can be minimized by early diagnosis and with the right interventions. Though the Government had notified Autism as a disability in 2001, it had not been issuing certificates. Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities, under MoSJ&E has notified guidelines on 26th April 2016 to pave the way for constitution of boards and issuing of disability certificates for Autism. 

Courtesy – Press Information Bureau, Government of India