A DIFFERENT DAWN

Long ignored as a disability, autism finally gets the attention and empathy it deserves, and benefits from new research, improved diagnosis and a growing neurodiversity movement

- Sonali Acharjee

MUGDHA KALRA, Mother of MADHAV, 13, Mumbai

Acceptance was everything broadcast journalist. Parents go through a grief cycle when the diagnosis of autism first arrives, she says. "It is the death of a dream. My life changed from that moment." Kalra is grateful that she can afford therapies and special school for her son, which otherwise is expensive to sustain. It also helps that her husband is equally hands-on when it comes to special needs parenting. Her choices have come from Madhav's condition, on what makes him most comfortable. Instagram has provided this autism activist with a platform to spread awareness and share stories about Madhav, something unavailable to parents previously. The neurodiversity movement in India is being driven by parents like Kalra who are making parenting a child with autism relatable and understandable.

Rakesh B.S., 36, from Thiruvananthapuram, was 34 when his wife scheduled a therapy intervention for his situational mutism-an anxiety-driven fear of social interaction, where he found it difficult to speak on select occasions. It was then that he discovered that there was a reason why he behaved in a way that he couldn't understand or control. He had lived with the symptoms for the past three decades and endured for years the label of a "weird kid". His speech was mostly normal, so no one suspected anything more. Till his wife read up on his condition and decided he needed help. "My wife helped me unmask my innate needs, which helped the therapist see that I was autistic," says Rakesh.