In 2014, Mugdha took her four-year old son to a school for admission.

After a 30-minute meeting, his counsellor suggested that he might have autism.

Mugdha says that she felt shocked and angry. Yes, her son spoke less than his peers but she was not expecting that diagnosis.

A specialist soon confirmed his autism.

Now, over a decade later, Mugdha says that she has gone from feeling angry to grief and now, to acceptance.

Today, 1 in 68 children in India are likely on the spectrum, according to studies.

Awareness around neurodivergence and autism has grown. There are even schools that accommodate.

And yet, many parents feel alone. Support and infrastructure has not adequately kept up.

What does it really cost–financially and emotionally–to raise a child on the spectrum?

Hear from parents, experts and doctors on this in the latest episode of The Signal Brief.

The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

NOTE: A machine transcribed this episode. A human has looked at this text but there might still be errors. Please refer to the audio above, if you need to clarify something. If you want to give us feedback, please write to us at feedback@thecore.in.

TRANSCRIPT:

Kudrat (Host): It’s Autism Awareness Month.

In India, 1 in 68 children is on the autism spectrum, according to a 2021 study published in the Indian Journal of Pediatrics.

Autism is a form of neurodivergence–that’s an umbrella term for brains that function differently from what’s considered typical. It includes conditions like autism, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, and Down syndrome.

Autism, specifically, is a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person communicates, processes information, and interacts with others. It can show up as difficulty with social cues, delayed speech, repetitive behaviours, sensory sensitivities or, in some cases, exceptional focus or pattern recognition.

In 2026, awareness around autism in India is growing, especially in big cities. Some schools are more accommodating. Special education options exist.

But for many families, support is still inconsistent and often out of reach.

Mugdha Kalra is a journalist and activist. Her 16-year old son, Madhav, is on the spectrum. She remembers walking into a school in Bengaluru in 2014 for his admission.

Mugdha: So in our case, when I had gone to a school for a regular school admission, my son was interviewed a couple of times in a one-on-one setup, in a separate setup. And the counsellor who was doing the rounds hinted towards the fact that maybe we need to get our son checked. It could be autism. And quite frankly, at that point in time, I was absolutely livid and angry and in denial because I was like, how can somebody say something like that to me after having a look at my child for 30, 35 minutes?

Kudrat (Host): Mugdha had already noticed Madhav spoke less than other children. But those words from the counsellor landed like a slap in the Bengaluru school waiting room.

She drove home in silence. Soon, she found herself sitting across from a specialist, who confirmed her son’s autism.

The initial assessment cost her Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000.

Today, the same visit in a big city costs Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000.

Mugdha: I think at that point in time you go through the entire cycle. The grief cycle is very, very huge in terms of denial. You feel betrayed, you feel self-doubt. You feel as if the whole world is against you. Nobody is understanding you. So a parent goes through a cycle of that grief, and a lot of times people are stuck in that cycle or a portion of that cycle for the rest of their lives.

Kudrat (Host): Mugdha eventually stepped out of that cycle, though.

Today she fights as a prominent activist. She’s even pursuing her PhD on assisted living for neurodivergent adults.

Of course, being a caregiver isn’t easy. For Mugdha’s family and for many like hers, that first diagnosis often marks the beginning of a lifelong financial and emotional journey.

Kudrat (Host): My name is Kudrat Wadhwa and you’re listening to The Signal Brief. We don’t do hot takes. Instead we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends.

In today’s episode: What it really costs–financially and emotionally–to raise a child on the autism spectrum in India in 2026.

Kudrat (Host): The initial shock of the diagnosis hit Mugdha hard. That’s a common reaction, say doctors.

Here’s Dr Sheryl John, a psychiatrist who works with people on the spectrum, as well as their caregivers.

Dr John: Usually what we see is a lot of shock and disbelief that this has happened to my child and my family, and they know it’s a huge burden that they feel they have to carry alone. So usually it’s a lot of shock and then sort of denial that no, maybe it’s not true.

Maybe this doctor doesn’t know what he or she’s saying. And that then leads to a lot of doctor shopping, probably going to a lot of alternative therapy people because there is a lot of denial that this is the diagnosis. And I think this question is very important to understand these emotions because the emotion of the parents will then drive the next steps towards treatment seeking or help seeking. So shock, denial.

A lot of times my mothers come with a lot of guilt. Did I do something wrong during the pregnancy or did I not eat well? I had this infection and could that have caused my baby to have this issue? A lot of anxiety about what it means now. How do we take the steps forward? So a lot of different emotions in different stages.

Kudrat (Host): Gopika is another mother. She founded Buddy Up, an app to help people with disabilities make friends.

She says she too felt the whole array of emotions since the first diagnosis. But, she has always had belief in her son, Vir.

Gopika: I was very, very sure that he would be able to do things from the time when he was diagnosed. Even though there were times when I was in absolute despair, I was tearing my hair out, trying to figure out how to get through to him and to communicate with him, I knew that he would be able to do things. I just didn’t know how, but I always had this unshakeable faith in him.

Kudrat (Host): Mugdha, the first mother we heard from, says even when she accepted Madhav’s condition, as he grew older, new behaviours appeared.

Mugdha: And I was, I think, in a mode where I was like, all right, we need to get started. Also, what happens, Kudrat, is that when your child is younger, you do not see so many behaviour traits or you don’t know what the prognosis is going to be like because not one child on the spectrum is similar to the other. It’s an individual journey.

So you keep finding out what autism you are dealing with, what kind of condition you are dealing with as and when the child grows up, and so your acceptance of that condition also sort of evolves, or you are more in denial, or you keep expecting that with every year things will get better, and so it’s a cycle.

Sometimes you deal with it in the most spiritual way. Then there are days when you’re exhausted and you are blaming everybody around you. There are times when you are angry. Why do I have to go through it? Why does my child need to go through this? So it is a tsunami of emotions. And that’s the reason why I always tell parents, the younger parents that I meet, that if you can afford to go for therapy,

Family therapy is the first thing I recommend to every parent because the child will be fine. It’s a lifelong condition. You will have to make friends with the condition, but the sooner you also get help for yourself in understanding what you are dealing with, the better it is for the family to accept it and look for solutions.

Kudrat (Host): Beyond the emotional ups and downs, Madhav’s autism was also a significant financial strain on the family.

Once the bills started arriving, they never really stopped.

Mugdha: He started with a mainstream school, but then we took him out and we introduced him to a therapeutic centre. I think when we talk about expenses, it is not easy raising a child in India who is neurodiverse. To be really honest, you have assessments, then you have therapy costs. The therapy cost could be anywhere from six to 800 an hour, going up to 4,000 an hour, depending on the city and depending on the specialist.

Kudrat (Host): Mugdha sat at her kitchen table every evening, adding up the numbers.

School fees. Therapy sessions eight times a month. A shadow teacher, the school asked her to pay for another Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 every month.

Mugdha: Then you have supplements. Then you have taking their children for all kinds of therapies that initially they feel. And so you spend a lot, and you don’t even know how long you will be able to continue with the therapy. For example, there is equine therapy, which is done with horses to teach balance.

So parents in the initial phase do everything. In India, they will do puja paath as well. That also comes at a cost.

So if you are getting some kind of treatment done spiritually for a child, and I don’t diss it because I have done it and a lot of other parents do it, that also comes at a cost. So if you’re doing extra pujas, if you’re doing extra interventions which are non-medical, that also comes at a cost.

So we’re looking at the entire burden and the financial strain on families. And the government doesn’t really do anything about supporting people who have children with disabilities.

Kudrat (Host): And then, of course, there’s medical costs, both expected and otherwise.

Madhav, for instance, had a seizure when he was 10, so in addition to taking him to see a developmental paediatrician, Mugdha also had to take Madhav to see a pediatric neurologist.

Put it all together, and raising a child on the spectrum in India can cost families anywhere between Rs 3 lakh to Rs 10 lakh a year.

The Nirmaya scheme is a government-backed insurance programme meant to cover therapies and medical care for people with disabilities. Families can use it to access up to Rs 1 lakh a year.

In practice, though, many parents say accessing it is slow and complicated.

In fact, getting a disability certificate can be a nightmare too.

Mugdha: It could take up to three years, it could take up to months. Some of the times these places are not even great to take a child to. Like Gopika was telling me the other day that Gopika’s son, when they went for their disability certification, the UDID, it was in the same complex where Arthur Road inmates were brought for their assessments.

So there was her son sitting with her, and on the other side, these inmates were sitting all handcuffed or in that rope, and they were also sitting at the same place. You go to a hospital for your disability certification. There are no bathrooms on a floor, so you will have to go all the way down to another floor.

So there are a lot of flaws in UDID certification. I hope with time they get sorted, but getting a disability certificate in itself is a problem. As a privileged parent, you would be like, what will one lakh in a year achieve for my child?

Kudrat (Host): More than a decade later since that first diagnosis, the journey is still unfolding. Today, Madhav is 16. And Mugdha says, the costs haven’t gone away. If anything, they’ve grown.

For younger parents entering the system today, the costs are even higher.

And just when families begin to find a rhythm…the system runs out.

After 15-18, structured support begins to fall away. There aren’t enough pathways for neurodivergent adults to work, learn, or participate in society.

Still, for many families, the hardest question is this: what happens when the parents are no longer around?

Lifespans have increased. Which means many neurodivergent adults will outlive their parents. And someone still has to take care of them.

Here’s Gopika, the other mother we heard from, talking about this:

Gopika: At the same time, you see that in the life cycle of a family, the parents invest certain money in the child’s education. The child grows up, the child starts earning money, and then starts supporting themselves, and hopefully also the parents hope that at some point in time the child will support them.

That does not happen in the case usually of a child with autism because unless they have very low support needs and can work independently and can make a substantial amount of money, they are always dependent on the parents. And so the parents have to account for a lifelong cost and a lifelong expense on behalf of that child.

And so the cost of raising a child with autism is considerably more than it would be for raising a neurotypical child.

Kudrat (Host): So how do families prepare for a cost that never really ends?

I spoke to Jitendra Solanki, a certified financial planner who helps parents of special needs children plan financially. His biggest advice: plan in advance. As soon as you learn about the condition.

Jitendra: If there is a sibling, will the sibling be able to manage everything? Generally parents think that the sibling will manage everything, but what happens is that siblings have their own lives. He might move abroad. Your child might stay in India. So how things are going to be managed? He has his own life.

You cannot put that pressure on the sibling.

So with all these in consideration, you have to answer some questions: who is the next person? Who is the legal guardian? How is he going to adjust his life to manage my child? Is there any legal framework I can set up which is not dependent on any individual, like forming a private trust?

Most importantly, they should not delay planning. We have had cases where parents come after retirement and find that the money they have is not going to meet the requirements.

So when parents decide that they have to do planning, they should decide early in life. The planning should start early in life. Whatever you plan, it’s not important, but planning should start so that you know very well what you have to accumulate 20 years down the line. And because wealth accumulation takes time, you need to give time to your savings to actually reach the desired destination you want.

Kudrat (Host): Financial planning becomes critical—especially when the costs don’t have an end point.

Beyond money, one word came up again and again: community.

Family and friends who’ve helped out. Other parents they’ve connected with — through WhatsApp groups, through blog posts.

Giving advice. Sharing what worked, what didn’t. Which doctor to go to. Which new app or therapy to avoid.

For many families, that’s really how they figure it out.

Kudrat (Host): That's all for today. You just heard The Signal Brief. We don't do hot takes. Instead, we bring you deep dives into the how and why of consumer trends. The Core produces The Signal Brief. Follow us wherever you get your favourite podcasts.

To check out the rest of our work, go to www.thecore.in.

If you have feedback, we'd love to hear from you. Write to us at feedback@thecore.in or you can write to me personally at kudrat@thecore.in.

Thank you for listening.