"Parents of children with special needs SHOULD BE POSITIVE"

May 14 was celebrated as Mother's Day worldwide including in India. In this Mother's Day special feature, ARUNA RAGHURAM interviewed Dr. Sumithra Prasad, founder of the DORAI Foundation, Chennai and mother of social entrepreneur Srinivasa Prasad (31), a person with special needs

- ARUNA RAGHURAM

In 1991 when Srinivasa aka Sahitya was born prematurely, the doctor predicted that he would not live beyond five years of age. He was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis at birth and epilepsy subsequently. In and out of hospitals through infancy, he was diagnosed with ADHD at age five and autism at seven. Heart and lung problems were added to the list of ailments. Through all these trials and tribulations, his mother Dr. Sumithra Prasad didn’t give up.

She homeschooled Sahitya who completed class XII through the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) with baking, confectionery and catering management as electives. In 2013, he came up with the idea of starting a bakery which would employ persons with disabilities.

Now in its tenth year, the SAI Bakery has won several awards including the ‘Best practices for rehabilitation of adults with different disabilities’ citation of the National Institute for Empowerment of Persons with Multiple Disabilities, Chennai. Sahitya was also honoured with the ‘Ashta Vakra Samman — Role Model Award’ in 2017 in Patna.

Through Sahitya’s difficult journey fraught with health complications and disabilities, mom Sumithra has been a rock, cheerleader and valuable role model. Having herself overcome a troubled childhood of drug abuse, Sumithra persevered to complete her post-graduation in psychology from Bombay University followed by a Ph D in psychosocial interventions in community mental health awarded by Pondichery University.