Mithu, has been working with children since 1966. Her work has involved participation of civil society in the NGO movement and helped initiate social change, through demonstration models of education, by influencing legislation and social policy for marginalized children.
She began working for the education of disabled children through innovative educational experiments which she carried out when she founded the first model of the Spastics Society of India ( now called ADAPT). This was at a time when question marks were generally raised as to the educability of children with disabilities.
The Spastics Society of India started in a very humble way with help from the late Shrimati Indira Gandhi who was instrumental in finding us the first school premises in Bombay in 1972. Today, this model has spread round the country to 16 of the 31 States and educational reforms have been introduced on a macro level enabling children who have graduated out of these schools to become accountants, computer experts, journalists, librarians etc. Some have gone onto Higher Education doing their Masters and some PhDs.
As a tribute to her effort, the organization got the Prestigious Award of the Best Voluntary Society in the country in 1987. In 1989, Mithu was honoured with a Padma Shri by the then Rajiv Gandhi Government.
In 1998 she obtained a PhD. while examining Government of India policy for the disabled. Her thesis 'Invisible Children - A Study of Policy Exclusion’, examined the evolution of educational policy in India for disabled children with specific reference to the Integrated Child Development Scheme. She reported findings of massive exclusion of children and people with disabilities from services and who were not being included in Government programmes targeted at the vulnerable and weaker sections of society to the extent of nutrition being denied to children with disabilities.
In the wider context, she has recorded how this had happened and the historical, socio-cultural, political underpinnings of why disabled children have not been included in mainstream services. The findings showed that there are many factors that had caused this marginalization. The ICDS policy of non inclusion of children with disabilities was a symptom of the wider malaise that exists in India today proving that India does not yet have a cohesive policy to include children with disabilities into mainstream education. Although there are many policies the implementation strategies have not been worked out.
Mithu then moved away to her second journey and built up a broader framework for herself and her organization. She set up with her dedicated team of people, ‘The Education for All Centre: The National Resource Centre for Inclusion’.
For the last ten years Mithu has been involved with inclusive education and implementing 'education for all' (EFA) for all children who are not within the purview of education. She has been working in the slums of Mumbai and has completed a longitudinal research with UNICEF where she has created an Education For All model for 'all' children who are disadvantaged to include the girl child, the disabled child and children in poverty, demonstrating that inclusive education can happen anywhere including the poorest places. This has been based on work in the Dharavi slums covering a population of 30,000 working with 6000 families, and with community teachers who were trained to teach 'all' children. Today over 3,000 children have been put into BMC schools in 14 nurseries specially set up for all the children within this population, both normal and disabled.
Models for intervention strategies at the family and community level have been designed. If scaled-up 4 to 5 million children and families in the poorest areas can be reached.
To spread inclusive education Mithu has also been working closely with the Government. In 1997, a series of conferences entitled, 'From Segregation to Integration' began in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai. This was sponsored by the Ministry of HRD and its outcome has been published. Her work has also been acknowledged and published by NIEPA, NCTE and IGNOU through various articles.
Mithu has been previously nominated member of the earlier National Commission for Children which was chaired by the late Shrimati Indira Gandhi in the late '70s.
Mithu has been nominated to the Central Advisory Board for Education (CABE), New Delhi, the highest policy making body on education in the country1. She has also been appointed to the Working Committee of the Planning Commission to allocate the Budget for the 11th Five year Plan.
Mithu has written and been published extensively over 35 years on the issues of child rights and the 'how' of educating poor children. She has 'walked' the 'talk' converting the rhetoric of inclusive education for all children into practical action. She has straddled the social policy dimension with cost effective methodologies of addressing educational needs of children.
Mithu Alur recently won the Indian Express EMPI Award for Innovative Work and the Best Woman of the Year Award from the Indian Merchant’s Chamber.
After nearly three decades of dedicated work for education and inclusion of the disabled in society, she realized that what was now needed was a political mobilization of the disabled. She created a political charter, which was presented to the main political parties to include the rights of the disabled in their manifestos. Four political parties responded, namely the Congress, National Congress Party, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Communist Party of India Marxist. With a solidarity march and supported by one lakh signatures, the movement for inclusion began to gain momentum.
Mithu’s latest achievement at the macro level has been her continuous engagement with Government at the Centre to include disability into the Right to Education Act (RTE) introduced in Parliament in September 2009. Mithu has also been nominated to the Round Table on School Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Delhi. Mithu Alur has also been able to start a rural outreach programme in Pelhar village in Thane District, which will be a model of an inclusive village combining education and health care.
Her latest academic and professional contribution to the cause of inclusive education and author two top international publications with Canadian experts. She has co-authored a book published by Routledge Kegan and Paul with Dr. Michael Bach from Roeher Institute in Canada, entitled, ‘The Journey of Inclusion Education in the Sub-continent’. Another book that has recently been published by a top international publisher, Sage Publications with Dr. Vianne Timmons from University of Regina, Canada, entitled, ‘Inclusive Education Across Cultures: Crossing Boundaries, Sharing Ideas.’ These books are meant for universities, colleges, all scholars engaged in inclusive education.