about the gallery

With just a handful state-run long-term care facilities available for a population of 15 lakh mentally challenged adults, parents are getting together across the country to make their own arrangements. In Mumbai, an NGO called Sangopita set up by the parents of a young man with cerebral palsy today houses 50 specially-abled people, aged 8 to 45. In Greater Mumbai, the 5-acre Adhar facility set up in 1994 by a trust made up of parents, now houses 220 people, while another in Nashik houses 100. In Bengaluru, Ruby Singh, the mother of an autistic man, runs a daycare centre called ALFAA and another example being in Pune, two homes managed by an 81-year-old parent and retired engineer housing 50 people.