Children with
Visual Impairment needs Special Attention of Govt.
The 4th January has a great importance in the
life of every individual who is suffering absence of sight. This is celebrated
as a Birth Anniversary of Louis Braille throughout the whole world. Today is
the 205th Birth Anniversary of Louis Braille.
Louis Braille is considered as the Father of Modern and in –
practice Braille Script. In the modern and fastest growing world of technology
and tools, a person suffering from absence of sight may have the information
from computerized and talking devices. But still there is a great importance of
Braille, which is considered as the Gate of Information for Persons with Visual
Impairment.
What
is Braille Script?
Braille is a tactile approach to reading and writing. The
basic of Braille symbol is called the Braille Cell. It consist of six dots
arranged in the formation of a rectangle, three dots high and two dots wide or arranged in two columns and
three rows. Each dot has a assigned number between one and six.
Braille is a system of embossed “sings” which are formed by
using combinations of six dots arranged and numbered thus:
1 O O 4
2 O O 5
3
O O 6
These cells can be arranged in 63 combinations each representing
a different character as illustrated in the Standard English Braille Chart.
The beauty of Braille is that it is based on phonetics. Thus
be it any language, Hindi, Japanese, German or Chinese, or any other Indian
languages the same sounding letters will have the same Braille sing. For
example, “ba” in Hindi has the same dot as “b” in English.
Ignorance
of Society
The basic human society develops with the fact that they
interact with each other. This interaction with other fellow beings helps to
integrate and develop a relation which then creates a society full of relations
and affection. But in these societies, those who have weak interactivity or who
face problem to interact with other people remain behind and are neglected and
thus have a less affectionate community.
Among these stand the disabled persons as they have less
mobility and interaction in the society growth thus they remain neglected and
during the development of the societies they remain unseen.
This ignorance, start
from the home itself and right from the mother’s lap. Most of the people will
say the mother cannot be biased, but as the matter of fact it is true. When
there is a disabled child the parents start to think differently for his future
as compare to the non-disabled child, because they think this child needs extra
care and support from them.
There is a strange
phenomenon with many special needs parents. That phenomenon is an overwhelming
sense of guilt for things that are quite often, outside of our control.
Educational Situation
of Children with Visual Impairment in Chhattisgarh:
If we talk about
the education of CWVI in Chhattisgarh, there are seven Special school (naming
Raipur, Bilaspur, Jagdalpur, Dhamtari, Kabirdham, Jashpur, Dantewada and
Kanker) run by social welfare department in the whole state where they can
study.
Under the so talked
“Inclusive Education” of Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, as per UDISE data,
2012-13 which capture data from class 1 to 8 there have been 299 and 2842
students respectively Absence of Sight and Low Vision.
While as per
tentative data of Rashtriya Madyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) in session 2012-13
only 164 and 1558 students respectively absence of sight and Low Vision are
enrolled for secondary and upper secondary.
There is lack of
Specialized Teacher in Visual Impairment in State to teach them. Among 177
Mobile Resource Advisor (MRA) in Chhattisgarh only 20-30 are specialized in
Visual Impairment.
As per the norms there Teacher Pupil Ratio
should be 1: 8 in elementary level and 1: 12 in Secondary level. It is a matter
of surprise that under RMSA there is no any such teacher appointed till now.
On the other hand
when we talk about the essential resource which is book either Braille book or
large print book. The State authority does not provide the large print book
while in case of Braille book; the Braille press which is situated at Bilaspur
is so old that in two months there could be production of just five sets for
each class in secondary level. So just
for the 164 students of secondary level, this press will take about 3 years of
time.
Acts and Policy:
As Disability is a
subject which is placed in the state list, but no any state in India have a
separate or specific Act for the Persons with Disabilities. So the acts which
have been incated time to time by the Govt. of India, which is currently four
in number, are also applicable in State. The Chhattisgarh State was first state
in India, which has constituted a expert group of expert to frame a separate Comprehensive Disability Policy for
Chhattisgarh in September, 2004. The framework has been developed under lead
role of Shodhana Consultancy, Pune and SENSE international (India)
Ahmadabad. But it is a matter of sorrow
that till today the framework is in the lane of ministries and secretariat for
the approval and its implementation.
As per the policy
framework there is about 5% of the total state population as the differently
abled, which are 10-15 % as per WHO and other international agencies.
One can easily
understand the priority and vision of the Govt. and its officials for the
betterment and up-liftment Differently Abled persons and their issues.
