Abstract
It is recognised long since that mental retardation is one of serious afflictions
of mankind, in terms of its magnitude and dire consequences to the sufferer,
his family and the society in which he lives. As elsewhere, this clinical condition
remained outside the centre of interest, both for the professionals and the public
in our country also. An awareness has now come among the related professional
people to make a serious study of it, in all its ramifications. There has been of
late, an increasing participation of various professional groups as Psychologists,
Psychiatrists, Educationists, Paediatricians and Social Workers. The growing
importance of this field is evidenced by the coming into being of an All India
Association of Mental Retardation (A.I.A.M.R.) and the All India level conferences
it successfully organised at Chandigarh in 1965, 1967 and at New Delhi in 1966,
and the Indian Journal of Mental Retardation whose first volume appeared in
1968.
References
Annual Conference of Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, Mysore, December 1968.
Kuppuswamy, Dr B. (1968) A Survey of Mental Retardation Among children Enrolled in Middle
Schools of Mysore City in (1968) Indian J. of Mental Retardation, Vol. 1, No. 1.
Marfatia, J. C. (1968) Mental Health Services, in Encyclopaedia of Social work.
Robinson, H.B. and Robinson, N.M. (1965) The Mentally Retarded child—A Psychological
Approach, New York, McGraw Hill. Inc.
Wallin (1958) in Robinson, H. B. and Robinson, N. M. (1965) Ibid.
World Health Organisation (1954) Committee of the W.H.O. Report—in Ibid.