Purpose: Down syndrome is developmental disorder that poses unique challenges and implications to families. The present paper is the outcome of a study carried out in Srinagar district of J & K in India, on mothers’ apprehensions about the uncertain future for their children with Down syndrome.Method: A phenomenographic approach was followed. Purposive sampling technique was used at selected special schools in Srinagar. Mothers of 8 children with Down syndrome who were enrolled in school, participated in the study. The mothers were between 31 and 67 years of age; their children were between 2 and 30 years of age. In-depth interviews were conducted in Urdu and Kashmiri, the local languages. The recorded information was subsequently transcribed and classified into themes.Results: The key theme that emerged was the participants’ worry about the unpredictable future of their child. Once a child is diagnosed with Down syndrome, parents - especially mothers - recognise that their child’s future may not include a carefree childhood and, at a later date, higher studies, an independent life and marriage.Conclusion: Mothers of children with Down syndrome experience high levels of stress and often have to make adjustments in their careers, finances and lifestyles. There is a need for training programmes to help parents cope with the problems faced by their children with Down syndrome. Stakeholders in the education sector could help in this regard.

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IntroductionWomen empowerment is a new phrase in the vocabulary of gender literature. The phrase is used in two broad senses i.e. general and specific. In a general sense, it refers to empowering women to be self-dependent by providing them access to all those freedoms and opportunities, which they were denied in the past only because of their being a 'women'. In a specific sense, women empowerment refers to enhancing their position in the power structure of the society. The word women empowerment essentially means that the women have the power or capacity to regulate their day-to-day lives in the social, political and economic terms -a power which enables them to move from the periphery to the centre. In 21 st Century women are recognized as important stakeholders of social development. They primarily bear the responsibility to achieve goals of quality education, healthy nutrition and to raise the levels of family income. Their actions warrant an end to hunger and poverty. However at the same time one can still find institutionalized inequality not only in working of the political institutions but also in more elementary fields of social and economic life of the women such as poor health care, malnutrition or under-nutrition, over-work, unorganized and unskilled workforce, maltreatment and powerlessness. Such pathetic state of affairs is prevailing at the time when the entire human civilization feels smug about its achievements especially in the fields of science and technology in a democratic setup. Democracy as a matter of fact has been projected as an important tool to talk and gain favours about the empowerment of women. Also because of peculiar placement of women in the social, economic and political settings of society, they experience poverty, hunger and unemployment differently as compared to men.

Social work practice takes place at micro, mezzo, and macro levels between persons with disabilities in families and other social institutions, such as schools, health systems, and welfare systems. Drawing from multidisciplinary theoretical sources, the article brings together social work and family therapy to develop a possible social work intervention for families of children with Down syndrome. The primary purpose of these interventions is to aid clients in alleviating problems and improving their well being. Social workers must think creatively about interventions that may help the individuals, couples, families, and groups or communities they serve. This research is using the literature study method. The results confirm that numerous concerns have to be addressed faced by children with Down syndrome. Toward various issues and challenges faced by people with Down syndrome and their families, social workers have the professional responsibility to provide services and intervention to increase the children with Down syndrome's social functioning and overall well-being of parents.