Tithi Rani Ghosh, a 10-year old girl from the village of Radhanagar in Akhaura, Brahmanbaria, dances in various cultural programs in villages and towns and is acclaimed by audiences. On this 16 June in Dhaka, she danced with a Shah Abdul Karim song along with his classmates before a large audience of development activists working on adolescent issues under a PKSF-supported program. The sari-clad little girl incarnated the famous song gramer naojoan, Hindu-Musalman, milia baula gaan aar murshidi gaitam playing in the background through her rhythmical movements. As usual her performance enchanted all. This program was organized by Centre for Development Innovation and Practices (CDIP) at the PKSF auditorium.

All children in this cultural troupe are autistic and disabled in various ways. Tithi, a sister among three brothers, cannot speak and hardly hear anything. But she dances so beautifully that it is hard to understand her physical disabilities. She stood first in January this year for dance, drawing and ball-throwing event at a program organized by SWID-Bangladesh (Society for the Welfare of the Intellectually Disabled, Bangladesh). She became second in dance at the National Children's Award Competition and Shilpakala Academy's program at the local level.

These children are students of Protyashi Buddhi Protibondhi O Autistic Bidyalay founded by Abdur Rahman Billal. Here Tithi is a student of Class III. Billal himself is slightly hard of hearing and while he was working in Saudi Arabia, he lost his 12-year old son suffering from cerebral palsy in 1992.

Billal did his masters in philosophy. Since coming home in 1996, his only thought has become how to improve lives of handicapped and autistic children. Now 10 teachers run this school with pre-primary to Class IV specializing in teaching-learning for handicapped and autistic children. Protyashi has 162 children out of whom 12 are autistic and the rest are children with various special needs. Most of them are from poor families.

Asarul Islam is the music teacher and Ruma Ghosh helps him as well as teaches in the dance class. Dulal Ahmed from the neighborhood is always available with his tabla and other necessary supports when there is any invitation for these children to perform in a cultural program. All the teachers have been doing their jobs on voluntary basis.

But the school has many expenses like house rent, electricity, conveyance expenses for students, etc., that must be borne every month. The total expenditure per month amounts to Tk.15000, which they collect from individual donors and sometimes meet out of their own pockets. The upazilla office has provided one riksha van to them for bringing students to school and taking them back home; it is, however, less than sufficient. They also receive some rice from the upazilla office and gives mid-day meal to students.

One day a week the students are taken to the nearby service centre for the disabled under the National Foundation for Development of the Disabled Persons. There children receive oral therapy, electric therapy, cycling, etc. as per their individual needs. The therapies, however, are much less than what the children actually need.

When I talked with Mr Billal, Mr. Asarul and Ms. Ruma, they told me that the children are very enthusiastic to come to school and the guardians are very happy for this. Parents can recognize the changes in the children's behavior after their attending the school for some days. One amazing improvement they all mentioned is that children having excessive saliva continuously dripping from their mouths get cured within a short period after their participation in singing, dancing and such other cultural activities.

Tithi is talented not only in dance and drawing but also in her study. Though she cannot hear and speak, she can write well. Her grandmother Shipra Ghosh takes care of her at home and always accompanies her in the journey for any program. Twin babies Neelpori and Lalpori, as they affectionately call them here, and the three brothers of short stature have learned to sing and dance in this school.

Protyashi is sincerely working to make significant changes in the lives of children with special needs and thus contribute to social progress for all.