Mumbai: Tata Power joined hands with the Government of India to collaborate and create a national working group on the autism spectrum. Speaking at a press meet held at Taj Lands End in Bandra on Wednesday afternoon, the spokesperson from Tata Power’s said the group will take forward ‘phygital’ (physical and digital) interventions and support programmes in key regions where Tata Power is based.
The CSR wing of Tata Power launched the ‘Pay Autention’ initiative in April and the ‘phygital’ support network for kids with autism is a step forward to the initiative.
It is said to enable children in small towns and villages to access several learning resources that are only available in bigger cities now. It also includes equipping locals like anganwadi workers and primary teachers to enable counselling and handholding wherever necessary. All these resources will also be available online for free use.
Mumbai’s Trombay is part of the pilot project, which started in April.
Foram Nagori, head CSR, Tata Power, said they are working closely with four ministries of the Government of India – Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
“We started in April as a pilot project in 20 districts in India including Maharashtra wherein, we are working with 300 angawadis,” she said.
Nagori added that they are involved with the anganwadis in training, certification, orientation and street plays that have been developed as a module to reach out.
“We have received 20-25 requests from angawadis seeking help to counsel parents after they have identified a child with a possible autism spectrum,” she said.
Nagori said they will work as enablers, catalysts and awareness agents for autism spectrum focusing on two-tier cities and rural parts of India.
“We are working through the existing nuclei of government health infrastructure. Our target audience is 0-6 years old children, mothers, caretakers including anganwadis, primary health care workers etc,” she said.
On Wednesday, a workshop was organised aimed to identify gaps, and opportunities for scaling regional models by integrating tech solutions and people networks to expand outreach and enable early identification, and basic support for neurodiversity in small-town.