Bengaluru: A girl with Type 1 diabetes has posted an online petition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking the Centre's support to include the disease in the Rights of Persons with Disability Bill, which is under revision in parliament.
"I take upon myself that what disabilities we Type 1 Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (T1DM) patients are suffering will not go unreported to my Honourable Prime Minister," Adya Satapathy wrote on Change.org, an online petition platform.
She said medical policy support by the Union government was a necessity so as to include T1DM in the Rights of Persons with Disability Bill under revision in parliament.
Adya said she has lost the physiological and anatomical function of her pancreas to produce insulin and control her blood glucose due to which she suffers from highly fluctuating very low and very high blood sugar readings every day.
"Unlike the rest of the country, we cannot be on an empty stomach for even more than a few hours, or we are sure to have a hypoglycemic attack and faint, only to go into a coma, if not revived by a fellow citizen who himself is clueless about our condition. What do we do?" she wrote.
Adya said very few schools support T1DM children and fail to understand their special needs, causing them to drop out or struggle.
They are not allowed to take food and glucometer inside the exam hall, which is required to treat low sugar, she said.
"When they experience high sugars in exams, they are unable to remember, concentrate, recollect and feel totally drained, dazed and have muscle fatigue, affliction and cramps. So they are unable to compete with normal children," she said.
Adya said it was abnormal for T1DM to be dependent lifelong on parental and family support system or the society at large.
She said the patients suffer a permanent, irreversible, untreatable and chronic lifelong impairment, thus severely impacting equal participation with fellow citizens, their growth and development to lead a safe and dignified life.
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