Media Coverage of Autism in India

The press in India can have an enormous impact as far as raising awareness. We at Action for Autism were reminded of this after an article about autism appeared in the Hindu in July 1997. In sum, we received more than eighty letters from parents and family members of persons with autism, persons with autism themselves, and professionals and other interested persons requesting more information. The responses came from throughout India, many parents commenting on the similarity of the behaviours described in the article to their own children. We also received several letters from adults who felt they themselves may be autistic, which is how many high functioning adults first become diagnosed. Therefore, although awareness of autism in India is still relatively low for the number of children, adults and families affected by the disorder, we are optimistic that there is clearly a growing recognition of the ways in which autism differs from other developmental and mental disabilities. Excerpts from some of the responses appear below.

•This has reference to an article in the Hindu, 13/7/97. My child may be developing symptoms similar to those of the autistic child. He is a male child, 2 years, 10 months. His memory is very good. He can recite rhymes and alphabets with nouns. However, he cannot communicate clearly...he screams at times irrelevant things...he is moody and very troublesome when eating and sleeping. -A parent from New Delhi

•My son, Amit, is 3 years old. He is unable to communicate his ideas. I suspect he is suffering from Autism. -A father in Kodur, A.P.

•I have read the Hindu article [and] I have every reason to believe that my son aged about 12 years is autistic. I would be grateful if you kindly send me more information about Autism. -A father in Nazira, Assam.

•I am the mother of an autistic girl aged 30. As a matter of fact, none of the doctors we had consulted had diagnosed her complaint as autism. She was termed mentally retarded. Recently I had read an article on autism and realized that my child was autistic...we have very little useful information on training methods for autistic children. I would be very grateful if you could send me some guidelines on training and handling autistic children. -A mother from Chennai

•I have read the article in the Hindu of 13/7/97 and I have a feeling that I have a grand-daughter who has all the characteristics mentioned in the article for autistic individuals. Please let me have any information regarding the treatment of such children. -A grandparent in Vishakapatnam

•My relatives are misunderstanding my behaviour and act [as they] consider me a mentally retarded person. I don’t mind, it is my relatives views...but I am clear I am only affected by autistic problem. Please send more details. -An adult in Tamil Nadu

Autism in the News
(Note! If you are interested in media representation of autism, we have a file of dozens of articles on autism in India in our Resource Centre.)