By age two, Sylvia Baral, the eldest daughter of Hem Sagar Baral, was still not speaking. She remained aloof and emitted eerie, high-pitched shrieks. It was troubling to both Baral and his wife Kalpana, from Nepal, that they could not understand their daughter's behavior.

After Baral and his wife took Sylvia to a day care center and then had a long series of discussions with doctors and psychiatrists, they discovered that their daughter was suffering from autism.

Baral's family was understandably shocked. “Some child psychiatrist and even some doctors could not diagnose the disability," recalled Baral.

While there is no data on the actual number of people suffering autism, parents are also often unable to find doctors able diagnose their children with autism.

Baral enrolled his daughter into various schools but she was ignored by the staff. Baral was faced with two options: to go abroad to seek care for his daughter or to establish a new autism care center in Nepal.

Baral is now the chairman of "Autism Care Nepal":http://www.autismnepal.org/, which was established on April 2, 2008. The center has more than 60 parents who have registered to learn remedies to deal with their children and more than 100 parents have inquired about the possible ways out for their autistic children.

“As a father it was very important for me to create an environment for my daughter where she could at least make an attempt to understand herself and the surrounding in which she lives.Taking note of several problems faced by autistic children, I along with other three parents came up with the idea of establishing Autism Care Nepal,” said Baral.

The center has been providing parent trainings on autism and day care to autistic children. Various treatment therapies such as art therapy and music therapy are some of the activities that raise awareness on how to deal with the disability in children.

“The increasing number of parents visiting psychologists and psychiatrists in their search for remedies speaks largely about the growing number of autistic children in Nepal,” says Dr. Sunita Maleku Amatya, vice chairwoman of Autism Care Nepal.

"There is no specific research on Autism in Nepal," said Jaganath Lamichhane, a mental health activist in Nepal. He added that “there are strong social, educational and cultural factors that forcefully silence the concern of children growing with autism and even medical professionals have little knowledge about autism. Our society is not willing to accept the children with autism. People do not want to engage with such children. These are the reasons people are not much aware about autism."

The interim constitution of Nepal neither has specifically addressed the issue of autism. Lamichhane said, "No law exists in Nepal specifically to deal with the needs of children with autism. Negative public attitudes towards the children with autism are the leading factor to silence the law in Nepal."

“What we are doing is still not enough to deal with the disability that is found to be growing amongst children today." said Amatya. "We lack professionals, we need to develop expertise on giving therapies, special educators and child caretaker. We also need assistance in terms of materials for educating children and also for awareness”.

Baral said that public and private institutions should launch collaborative initiatives aimed at deciphering the complex biology that produces a dazzling range of disability.

“First of all, we need to promote scientific knowledge to make society understand the reality of autism. The state must recognize and promote the special needs of children with autism as human rights."

Lamichhane has other ideas. "We need urgent investment in this sector to develop expertise on giving therapies, childcare takers and special educators," Lamichhane said.