More special schools will help autistic children: Tharoor

More special schools can create awareness among parents and help in social acceptance of children with neurological disorders, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor said here Friday.

Tharoor said that a new centre for excellence for autism would be opened shortly by an NGO in the Gurgaon.

The NGO, Special Child Trust, will open the centre in alliance with New England Centre for Children (NECC), a non-profit autism research and education centre.

"Autism is the fastest growing developmental disability across the world and early intervention can play a pivotal role in the absorption of people with autism in the mainstream," Tharoor said.

"We will open the centre by October. Initially, it will cater to children aged between three to 12. We will have three classrooms with 24 children in each. The centre for autism kids will be extended in a phased manner," said Sameer Nayar, co-founder of the Special Child Trust.

The new centre for autism will have Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), which is an analytical, research-based, data driven tool for intervention for children on the autism spectrum.

There has been a staggering six-fold increase in autism cases in India, from 20 lakh in 2003 to 1.36 crore at present.