Kathua Boy Breaks Eight-Year Silence with Help from Army Doctor

Quick Summary

• Eight-year-old Akshay Sharma from Kathua district, Jammu and Kashmir, found his voice after eight years of silence.
• Born with a cleft lip and palate, Akshay underwent surgery at the age of three but continued to face challenges with speech.
• His parents, civilian labourers working with the Indian Army, could not afford further treatment until Army doctor Captain Saurabh Salunkhe intervened.
• Captain Salunkhe personally learned speech therapy techniques and trained Akshay for two to three hours daily over eight weeks.
• The therapy began with basic exercises like gargles and evolved into mastering nasal, oral sounds, labial-palatal sounds, and throat sounds.
• Akshay’s breakthrough came when he confidently called his parents for the first time in years-a moment they described as miraculous.
• Lieutenant Colonel Suneel Bartwal noted that this initiative by Captain Salunkhe brought hope to an entire community beyond its medical significance.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The story of Akshay Sharma underscores the profound impact individual efforts can have in addressing systemic gaps in healthcare accessibility across remote areas of India. While this is a heartwarming example of dedication by an Army officer going beyond his duties to provide essential care where local facilities fell short or were unavailable-it also highlights broader issues like inadequate rural health infrastructure and specialized medical services, which disproportionately affect economically underprivileged communities such as those in jammu & Kashmir.

This initiative further reflects how institutional actors like the Indian Army are able to step into roles beyond their mandate-boosting national morale while reinforcing trust through grassroots engagement with communities during non-combat scenarios. The active involvement of defense personnel in humanitarian endeavors strengthens India’s push towards inclusive development models for underserved areas while creating narratives that integrate defense forces deeply within civil society functions.

For Read More: Link