Kannur: Young Niya will soon hear her father and mother's voice again. The state government has promised to get her a new hearing aid after the one she used to wear was stolen.
Niya is at her mother’s place, running a temperature after all the crying from losing the gadget received after much effort. Health Minister KK Shailaja personally delivered the news to family by handing over a temporary speech processor. Shailaja said a new processor would be given in two weeks.
Niyasree’s speech processor was stolen last week. After the news was published in Manorama on February 5, Social Security Mission’s Executive Director Dr Muhammed Asheel was analysing the scope of providing her a new one. But he had to wait for a couple days since the money could be used for another child in case someone returned the gadget. Many others too came forward with an offer to buy it for Niya. But when that did not look imminent, the government swiftly took a call.
Niyashree was born deaf at Chorakkalam, near Peralasseri, Kannur. She underwent a cochlear implant surgery at Calicut Medical College under the government’s Sruthi Tharangam project and gained the sense of listening four months back. She had started learning the basic words when someone stole her hearing aid. Niya had started calling out to her parents after a few sessions of speech therapy at the medical college. She was travelling in the women’s compartment of Egmore Express with mother after a therapy session when the gadget was lost. It was kept in her mother’s bag in a box, which someone might have mistaken for a jewellery box, the parents believe.
