Odisha plans varsity for visually challenged

Bhubaneswar : The Odisha government is planning to set up a dedicated international university for visually challenged persons, making it the first such initiative in the country.

Bishnupada Sethi, Principal Secretary to the department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD), on Thursday said the Odisha government has discussed the matter with a Japanese delegation that visited the State for the meeting.

The SSEPD Deputy Secretary, Sanyasi Behera, who is himself a visually challenged person, said, “The university will cater to the needs of visually challenged persons in education and training.”

Sethi said Odisha is contemplating opening a campus for imparting education to visually challenged students from India and abroad. He said the institute will provide a vocational course on policy research and technical courses on acupuncture and physiotherapy.

The official said the department will soon send a proposal to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi for approval.

The proposed university will be named after Bhima Bhoi, a visually challenged poet-saint and social reformer.

Odisha government officials on Thursday met Ryuchi Aoki, Principal of Tsukuba University, who expressed his views on creating employment opportunities for visually challenged people by providing them with proper education and training.

Tsukuba University is now offering various vocational educations to different students. There are around 67 special schools in Japan where students are given vocational education, the delegation informed the Odisha government officials.

The proposed university will be useful as India has over 50 lakh visually challenged people, of whom 5.21 lakh live in Odisha. Of the 5.21 lakh visually challenged persons, 2 lakhs are youths, officials said.