These are just a few of the many success stories coming out from the Muskaan campus, scripted by parents and professionals who set up this voluntary organisation in 1982 to counter stereotypes about mentally challenged people. As principal Neera Chawla says, “We are not a charitable organisation. Our mission is to impart vocational training to our students.”

The organisation has a well-structured training programme to empower students with vocational skills. There are special educators and trainers who train students in candle making, diya painting, cooking, baking, making stationery items and office management.

So, how receptive are the students? Sudershan Ahuja, who heads the masala making unit, points out how she has streamlined the work in the unit so as to assign specific roles to students according to their capabilities and levels of competence. Special educator Savleen Kaur recounts how it took several rounds of counselling to boost the self-confidence of a student who was slow in picking up skills.

The task requires a lot of patience but the teachers are prepared. Says Rina Kumari, a trainer who helps severely challenged children imbibe cognitive skills, “Nothing is impossible.”

Muskaan has been working closely with parents to alter perceptions about special children. There is a concerted endeavour to engage parents with the lives of their children through quarterly parent-teacher meetings and occasional home visits. The organisation has a three-months training programme recognised by IGNOU, which equips parents to handle complexities in the lives of their children. Muskaan has also taken up the tough task of integrating its students into the mainstream by trying to give them opportunities of employment in the open market. As part of its 25th year celebrations in 2007, it launched awareness campaigns in a number of schools and colleges to sensitize students about the multiple social and psychological ramifications of intellectual disability. Volunteers and trainers made presentations at Tagore International School, Amity International School and Gargi College.

In recent times, there has been a distinct change in the approach towards looking at the issue of disability. As Dr Shanti Auluck, president of Muskaan, emphasises, “Civil society must recognise the rights of these individuals to lead a decent, dignified life.”

Muskaan is a step in this direction.