Daemons

21Apr07

I passed a Down Syndrome kid on the way back to my apartment today. He was outside the front of his house, sitting down beside his mother, helping to peel vegetables for the dinner. I didn’t give the scene a second glance and it wasn’t until I got to the end of the road before I thought about it.

More than 1 in every 1000 children born have Downs. According to the National Down Syndrome Society the number raises to 1 in 733 in the U.S. It’s one of the most common mental disabilities, and the most common genetic disorder. So in the thousands upon thousands of people that i’ve seen, across the Indian subcontinent and beyond, where are all these people?

Hiding people with differences or disabilities is the norm, and not just in Asia. Families are shamed and communities horrified by the presence of these people. In the past their conditions and traits have been blamed on the work of Devils, evil spirits or gods playing tricks on mortals. An old Irish fable speaks of mothers finding their children switched with imps, explaining the broad features that characterise a Downs kid’s face. Blame it on the ignorance of the past? A time before education and logical thinking and the prevalence of scientific thought? It wasn’t so long ago that we locked children up in institutes. That we shunned and didn’t speak of family members with differences. It wasn’t so long ago that I remember hearing the cruel jokes in school-yards, or seeing the panicked faces on classmates when a group of special needs students came to our classroom. The fear, the ignorance.

For all the differences in societies that I’ve seen, it’s sad that this disgusting characteristic unites us. What’s to fear? What’s so terrible about this boy that he needs to be hidden? Where is the daemon in him that makes him so far from any other boy?

I looked back down the road. The boy was still there, peeling vegetables in the warm evening sun. I turned and walked on.

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