Roughly 3% of the population, over two million people, are affected by mental handicap. The mildly retarded majority attract little attention. There are about 300, 000 severely retarded, who pose a more immediate social problem. 80% of mentally handicapped people live in rural areas. Mental handicap will become more noticeable as infant mortality declines, primary education spreads and life-style makes increasing demands on mental ability. As Special Education improves, mentally handicapped people continue to achieve more than they were thought capable of under their `labels` of `Educable/Trainable`, `I.Q. 70, 50, 30`, `Borderline/Mild/Moderate/Severe` etc. Professionals in this field are now making less use of these categories and are concentrating more on current abilities and development programmes. There is a very small number of professionals in Pakistan known to have received specialist training in the education and rehabili-tation of the mentally handicapped, or who have experience working in this field.