Thakur V. Hari Prasad

Founder

Thakur V. Hari Prasad is the founder of Thakur Hari Prasad Institute (1968)[1], an Indian non-profit working on disability, education and mental health from Hyderabad.

Thakur V. Hari Prasad was an Indian social worker who founded the Thakur Hari Prasad Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for the Mentally Handicapped in Hyderabad on 16 September 1968, and was its founder-president. The institute provides multidisciplinary rehabilitation services, training, research and advocacy for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism, Down's syndrome and cerebral palsy.

He came to the field as the parent of a son, Ramesh Thakur, who had an intellectual disability, and the institute records that this shaped his understanding of what families needed.

Career

Hari Prasad wrote books and papers on disability and spoke at national and international seminars and at inter-regional Asia-Pacific congresses. In 1964 he undertook a demonstration project on child development that led to the drafting of a National Policy for Child Development.

In 1987 he convened a national seminar on persons with intellectual disability, and the resulting policy document was presented to Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1988. The institute credits this work as contributing to the Rehabilitation Council of India Act and to the Persons with Disabilities Act of 1995. He served as chairman of the Rehabilitation Council of India, where he was involved in national training programmes for rehabilitation personnel and for medical officers at primary health centres.

He introduced the foster-care-home model at an institutional level and set up a community-based rehabilitation project in a rural area at Lalacheruvu. He was a member of the Planning Commission's standing committee on value orientation in education and of the academic council of Visva-Bharati.

Recognition

Hari Prasad was a Nehru Fellow and a University Grants Commission national awardee. He received a National Award from the President of India in 1993 for outstanding performance in the welfare of the handicapped, and in the same year was honoured by the Third World Foundation for leadership and contribution to the welfare of persons with intellectual disability. He received the Mehdi Nawaz Jung Award as the country's best welfare worker in 1994, the UGC Swami Pranavananda Award in education in 1995, the Hong Kong Foundation International Award in 1995, the International Community Service Award of the U.S.-Asia Foundation in 1996, and a lifetime achievement award from the American Biographical Institute in 1997. He was also presented with a plaque by the President's Committee on Mental Retardation in the United States.[2][3][4]

Thakur Hari Prasad Institute

Founded on September 16, 1968 by Dr. Thakur Hari Prasad, the Thakur Hari Prasad Institute of Research and Rehabilitation for the Mentally Handicapped in Hyderabad is one of India's pioneering institutions for persons with intellectual disabilities. It runs special education, early intervention, vocational training and rehabilitation programmes, hosts teacher-training courses recognised by Osmania University, and received the National Award from the President of India for outstanding work in handicapped welfare in 1983.