Five-year-old wishes to thank PM Modi for help with cochlear implant

17.01.2016, VARANASI: A five-year-old deaf-and-mute boy by birth who is now able to hear and utter few words after a cochlear implant wants to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the city on January 22 to thank him for the financial help provided for his surgery. His father too aspires to express gratitude to the PM for showing generosity to his hearing-impaired son.

While responding the boy Amreshwar tries to express his feelings mainly through hand gesture and few words. He can now speak words like mummy, papa and Modi too. For fluent speaking, he needs proper speech therapy. Boy's father Vishnu Soni, a poor motorcycle mechanic, said speech therapy is being given to his son at BHU hospital. "We are grateful to the PM for providing a financial assistance of Rs 3 lakh for the cochlear implant surgery," said Soni, a resident of Churamanpur village.

He had applied for financial assistance for the treatment of his deaf and mute son and received a letter in February last year that a sum of Rs 3 lakh from the Prime Minister's National Relief Fund has been remitted to the hospital for the treatment of Amreshwar, said Soni, who runs a small motorcycle repair shop near his village.

Although the grant was a big help, Soni still faced the challenge of arranging the remaining Rs 6 lakh for the surgery. Soni has to feed four sons and a daughter. His firstborn also suffers from thalassemia. Soni, however, received financial support from other sources for the remaining amount. The surgery was done at Sir Sundarlal Hospital, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in October last year, he said.

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"We wish to express gratitude to the PM For providing financial help when he arrives here to distribute equipment to physically challenged people," Soni told TOI on Friday.

The PM is scheduled to distribute artificial limbs, tricycles and other equipments to around 8000 divyangs (physically challenged people) here at a function to be held in the premises of Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) on January 22. It is poised to be the biggest such event which might make it to the Guinness Book of World Records. Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) will also hold a registration-examination camp for divyangs under the scheme of Assistance to Disabled Persons for Purchase/Fitting of AIDS/Appliances (ADIP) in the DLW premises on Saturday for those who were unable to get themselves registered in earlier camps.