the premier organisation of and for the sightless in West Bengal
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Blind Persons' Association the premier organisation of and for the sightless in West Bengal |
More than two hundred sightless men, women and children marched hand in hand with sighted friends along the crowded Ashutosh Mukherjee Road in Kolkata on January 4, 2009 to pay homage to the memory of Monsieur Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille system. It was the bicentennial birth anniversary of this great scientist. The rally started from Jyotin Das Park and finished at Rabindra Sadan, highlighting on their way in banners and posters the demand of the sightless people for more Braille books and for more opportunities to learn Braille.
Floral tributes were paid to the portrait of Louis Braille before the procession set out. A street drama was staged by Anya Desh, a group of sightless actors on this occasion. Members of several organisations like Society for the Welfare of the Blind, NIP, Blind Persons' Association and Workshop for the Blind attended the march.
Railway Recruitment Cell of East Central Railway, Patna denied the facility of amanuensis to visually handicapped candidates in the written examination for recruitment in group D category against Examination Notice No. 01/2007(Group D) held on December 21, 2008 at Howrah Vivekananda Institution in West Bengal. A number of posts were reserved in the said examination as per provisions of Section 33 of Persons With Disabilities Act, 1995. However, there was no instruction in the Admit Card regarding rules for provision of amanuensis. The vh candidates expected the Railway authorities to make necessary arrangements for the same as was done on previous occasions.
Quite a few vh candidates from West Bengal, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh reported to the examination centre in time and met the Centre-in-Charge asking for amanuensis. The Centre-in-Charge did not make any arrangements for amanuensis. Instead he demanded written permission for amanuensis issued by the Patna office of the East Central Railway. As there was no instruction in this matter, none of the candidates thought of applying for permission for amanuensis.
The candidates were allowed to appear at the examination after prolonged persuasion. They were asked to find out their amanuenses. The candidates finally managed to find out amanuenses from amongst the relatives of other candidates in the examination hall. They were given question papers etc. and they were all set to start answering when were virtually driven out of the examination hall. The Centre-in-Charge went as far as to say that only "Lalu" (the Hon'ble Railway Minister) had the authority to order him to allow the vh candidates to appear at the examination.
It seems, the reservation for the visually handicapped in the aforesaid examination was a farce. Otherwise the Railway authorities would have made sufficient provision for these candidates, or, would have clearly specified the procedure for the same. The vh applicants cannot be expected to anticipate official instructions and collect their legitimate permission from Patna. The behaviour and biased comments of the Centre-in-Charge of the said examination further suggest that he was predetermined not to allow the vh candidates to appear at the examination. A responsible government officer must show a little more sense in his public duties
Blind Persons' Association is launching a protest to the Chief Personnel Officer (Recruitment) of East Central Railway against the unfortunate incident. The Association is also demanding that the RRC must allow the visually handicapped candidates of the examination to appear with amanuensis at a fresh examination. It must also be ensured that detailed instruction regarding amanuensis is sent along with the Admit Card to vh candidates and the Centre-in-Charge in order that the candidates may obtain necessary permission for amanuensis on production of specified testimonials before the Centre-in-Charge.
Blind Persons' Association submitted a proposal to the Fifth Pay Commission of West Bengal on November 17, 2008 for revision and addition of some allowances for visually handicapped teachers serving in different schools and colleges of West Bengal. Visually handicapped teachers have to incur additional expenses for evaluating answer sheets by engaging readers and amanuenses. Since the number of examinations has been increasing regularly, the expenses are increasing in the same proportion. They have to purchase and maintain special assistive devices like computers, scanners, screen-reading software programmes etc. for efficiency and independence. Accessible teaching materials like Braille books, tape recorders and audiocassettes which they need for preparation of lessons cost them extra too. These teachers have to bear extra costs for safe traveling. In most cases, the traveling expenses are more than double the expenses borne by normal people.
A joint petition containing the same demands signed by a number of visually handicapped teachers was also submited on the same day. The demands include:
Blind Persons' Association in collaboration with Bullygange Sarbojanin Durgotsab Samity organised a Braille exhibition at the puja premises at Deshapriya Park in Kolkata in the Durga Puja festival during October 5 to 8, 2008. Hundreds of visitors came to the exhibition pavilion to see display of various Braille equipments. It was part of the awareness campaign conducted by the Association every year.
Helen Keller Smriti Vidyamandir of Krishnanagar, Nadia paid homage to Monsieur Louis Braille on the occasion of his 200th birth anniversary on September 20, 2008. They conducted a panel discussion on different aspects of his contribution. Among the participants were Shri Amiyo Biswas of Blind Persons' Association, Shri Sadhan Chandra Das, former Principal of Coochbehar Govt. Blind School and Shri Partha Pratim Kundu, Headmaster of the local Shaktinagar High School.
Blind Persons' Association organised All Bengal Aquatic Meet for the Sightless for the third year in a row on August 23, 2008. About 70 sightless boys and girls from different parts of West Bengal showed their aquatic skills in the swimming pool of Anderson Club at Rabindra Sarogar of Kolkata. The entire competition was hosted and conducted by the Life Saving Society.
Prizes were distributed among the successful participants by Justice S.N. Talukdar and Shri Sukumar Samajpati, a football veteran. Among the participating organisations and schools were Mayna Ramkrishnayan Blind School, Ananda Bhaban Deaf and Blind School, Narendrapur R.K. Mission Blind Boys' Academy, Voice of World, Helen Keller Smriti Vidyamandir, Society for the Welfare of the Blind and Blind Persons' Association.
Blind Persons' Association has been trying to ensure that sightless candidates can compete with their sighted friends in the examination held under the West Bengal Central School Service Commission. The right of the sightless candidates to appear at such exams was achieved after a sustained movement by the organisation. Although the provision of scribe and 1% seat reservation were accepted by the Commission way back in 2001 following an order by the Kolkata High Court, there were still a number of problems faced by such candidates.
They need extra time to complete their answer sheet to make up for the loss on account of listening to the reading of the questions by the scribe and then dictating the correct answer. They also need separate sitting arrangement that they can comfortably hear the scribe's reading and dictate his answers to him. A delegation led by Shri Saikat Kar, a member of the Executive Committee of the Association, met the Secretary of the SSC on 21st of August, 2008. The Secretary accepting their requests granted extra time of 15 minutes during the SSC exams for sightless candidates. He also assured them of separate sitting arrangement for candidates taking the help of a scribe.
Blind Persons' Association organised a seminar at H.L. Roy Memorial Hall of Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers, Jadabpur on August 9, 2008 The Significance of Braille System in the present era. The seminar was inaugurated by Prof. Sujay Basu, Director, Centre of Energy and Environment Management, Kolkata. Dr. Debiprasad Duari, Director, Research and Academic, M.P. Birla Institute of Fundamental Research, Kolkata in his address as the chief guest of the inaugural session urged the sightless people to involve scientists in a movement that the sightless can reap the benefits of modern science and technology. Dr. Duari formally released the Braille edition of "The Reading Fingers", a biography of Monsieur Louis Braille by Jean Roblin (Translated from French into English by Ruth G. Mandalian).
Dr. Dhirendra Kumar Sarengi, Deputy Director, Higher Education, Govt. of Orissa, in his paper on "The Genesis of Braille System" explained how Louis Braille developed Braille, the tactile alphabet and its application in Indian languages. Dr. A. Gangadharan of History Department of Benaras Hindu University laid highest priority on learning and use of Braille along with other technologies in his paper on "the Relevance of Braille System in the Age of Technology". He urged the government to accord a special status to Braille as a script and publish important documents like the Constitution in Braille. Dr. Runa Biswas, Head of the Department of Education, South Calcutta Girls College, Kolkata, in her presidential address over the first session of the seminar told of her bitter experiences of blind schools in West Bengal. She regretted that there is a wide gap between policy and implementation. She emphasized on establishment of special schools for the proper education of the sightless children.
In the final session a paper was presented by Sri Amiyo Biswas, former Vice President of Blind Persons' Association on "the Social Implication of Braille System". He explained that the invention of Braille system was the product of a social process that started during the Renaissance in Europe. We should not only reach its fruits to more and more sightless people, but also study Louis Braille's life, his insatiable thirst for knowledge, his selfless love for his pupils and friends. Smt. Ruma Chatterjee, Headmistress of Adarsha Balika Shikshayatan, in her presidential address of the session told the house how sightless students have accommodated themselves among the normal students in her school.
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