It is estimated that about two percentage of the population is affected with various types of mental retardation. Out of this, one percent of the population is visibly retarded by physical appearance and low motor development activities. Mental retardation is not a disease and the effect of it cannot be cured and persist till death. Mental retardation is viewed as more dreaded than the most dangerous disease prevailing. Mental retardation keeps a person unproductive, dependant and they are even considered sub human. As they bear this stigma, the mentally retarded are treated as a curse to the family. We know that they are human and have the same rights as all other citizens. It is none of their fault that they were born mentally retarded. It is really a shame for the society that it treats the mentally retarded as sub human. The duty emancipated on the fateful flock is to help them financially, to develop their abilities to make them live independently, support the families psychologically and substantially. The project wish to develop various skills of the mentally retarded and ease the strain and tension faced by the parents of these fateful people.
Sneha Sadan is a registered Charitable society under the Travancore Cochin Literary Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act of 1955 at District Registrar's Office at Ernakulam as No.ER 455 / 94 dated 20.07.94. The center is Managed by the sisters of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel Mary Matha Province, Angamaly.
There are many Mentally Retarded children belonging to the poor families around our center. The matter was revealed by a survey conducted for this purpose. These children were treated as useless to the community and a burden to their own families. They were not sent to any school for training since there was no such facility in the vicinity. Therefore the Carmelite sisters took the situation as a challenge and decided to start a center for providing day care and education to those ill-fated children in a special school named Sneha Sadan Complex constituted for the purpose.