Let the Light-Denied See the Light of Knowledge

Have you ever spared a thought for those hapless twelve million of this land who live only on the shadow of other in this world of light? They are the sightless, impaired in the most vital organ for communication with the outside world, the wretched multitude condemned to living on charity and condescension. Bleeding deep in their heart they have been cherishing a dream of rising to life of dignity and honour. Blind Persons' Association (BPA), founded in 1946 by Late professor Nagendranath Sengupta, ushered in a new era for our sightless million to realize their dream of deliverance from a parasitic existence and to live with dignity as equal members of society, contributing in their own capacity. In almost half a century of odyssey of pain and struggle, surmounting mountain high odds of superstitions, prejudices and misconceptions and counting entirely on people's support, sympa­thy and succour, three schools have been set up for the sightless, a spice-grinding units and a public library of Braille books, unique of its kind in India and a talking book library - all of which are milestones of the Association's triumphant march to realize its dream.

But, truly, whatsoever headway the Association might have made, the sightless remain yet to be freed from the curse of social isolation. The question of their recognition persists, and persist it will, unless and until they get equipped with most advanced knowledge in the disciplines of science and epistemology and acquire a quality of character equal to the crying social needs.

Think of the plight of sightless persons here in our country. Born unwelcome and rather unwanted, then cast out from warmth of the family, from affection, tenderness and hardly a friend to share his feelings, he has to count his hours, days and years of an existence that is excluded, estranged and forlorn. This begets in him a peculiar inferiority complex which but tends to get complicated further in the later years, straining all the way his natural bond with society.

What is urgently required to free him to a great extent at least, if not fully, from this tragedy of existence is cultivation and dissemination of knowledge, knowledge born of the long struggles of mankind and accumulated and sharpened to direct the struggles of the present and the future.

But it is the unfortunate and real fact that the door to the highway of knowledge is closed on the sightless. Not to speak of the inaccessibility to books of higher education or those meant to cater to one's varied tastes, they do not have school text books even for dearth of Braille recorded materials. Engaging readers to get books read out to them is beyond their means. There are four government sponsored Braille presses in India, but these short of even meeting the need of text­books for the sightless school children.

Determined to do away with the spiritual benightedness and atrophy and work for awakening from a shadowed life, Blind Persons' Association took on itself the task of installing a Braille Press, This proposed Braille Press is projected to bring out Braille books also for higher studies in all the major Indian languages including Urdu and English. There is also plan to expand the existing library with books' on different branches of knowledge.

The first phase of the three phased project encompassing the construction of the ground floor of a four- story building and installation of a Braille Press has been successfully completed through its colourful inauguration on the 4th of January, 2003 commemorating the 194th anniversary of Monsieur Louis Braille. The project has been named Lal Bihari Shah Braille Academia as a mark of respect to the memory of Lal Bihari Shah who played a pioneering role in promoting education among the sightless in India.

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	Braille press complex under construction

The new Academia has a resourceful library of Braille and ink -print books, and audio books in addition to a Braille Printing unit. The second and third phase of the project will cover expansion of Braille Press, setting up of Braille and talking book library and a resource centre for the sightless. The capacity of the braille press has meanwhile been enhanced with the extension unit of the press inaugurated on January 8, 2006. Quite a few Bengali and English books in braille are available from our press and sightless individuals can purchase them at nominal prices.

The task is colossal. The cost of the entire project including purchase and installation of a Braille Press, completion of a four-story building for preserving the Braille volumes, is estimated to be around Rs.4 crore. The figure would look fabulous but Blind Persons' Association feels undaunted to accomplish the project from its fresh experience and faith in the people. We do hope and believe that generous people and philanthropists would do all they can to help us realize this most cherished dream of millions of mentally starving sightless brother and sisters by contributing their might to this humanitarian cause.

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