While ‘prevention is better than a cure’ may be an adage that you learnt in school, the doctors from the Valabhdas Dagara Indian Society for the Mentally Retarded have based an entire movement dedicated to it.

This year, the society will be implementing a three-point programme starting in December as a part of its movement on prevention of disabilities in newborn babies.

Last year, the society had undertaken a campaign to spread awareness about precautions to be taken during childbirth and had even made a ‘quicky’ ¿ a short film on the topic. This year, the focus is on the importance of administering the Rubella vaccine to teenaged girls, the significance of a thalessemia screening test before marriage and the benefit of taking a Torch Test before planning a pregnancy; all of which will help curb disabilities in infants.

“There are several causes for disability in new born children and we focus on those disabilities that can be prevented by following certain simple steps. According to the census statistics of 2001, 2.1 per cent of our population is disabled. We are confident that our awareness campaign will prevent at least 50-100 newborns from being born disabled each year. However this confidence is solely derived from our 35-year medical experience and expertise and not on the basis of any statistics,” quipped Dr A V Mehta, the secretary of the society.

The society, which was established in 1972, also runs a day-care institute for disabled children, where each child is trained to become an expert in the skill he knows best. However, rather than coping with a disability, doctors at the society feel preventing it is better.

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