A mission with a vision

Empowering the blind

Narsapur (Medak): There is no government-run school for visually challenged children in Medak district. But a retired Hindi teacher with over 39 years of experience has been filling that gap, by not only offering free education, but also providing food and accommodation to these unprivileged elements of an imperfect existence.

TN Prabhakar a 78-year-old visually challenged man with 100 per cent disability is doing yeomen service for the young generation by providing them the tools and skills to prosper in their lives. Even after retirement in 2006, he continued teaching at two different schools for two years without getting paid, as there were no Hindi teachers in those schools then. He started a Blind Welfare Association and kept serving the visually challenged community, ensuring they got the benefits of government welfare schemes meant for them.

In 2012 he founded Louis Braille Educational Society’s Saibaba School for Blind, at Narsapur in Medak district, with only one child. Four years on, currently there are 26 children enrolled in his school, from class I to class 9. Five among them are partially blind. He hopes to get recognised for class 10 soon. Until then, he plans to teach class 10 students and make them take the open school exams.

He has been lucky enough to find a building to setup his school there, after a chit fund scammer who had built it, had abandoned it before absconding with crores of public money. Apart from teaching all the subjects using Braille script, children are also taught keyboard, drums, singing and other arts. They are also taught computers using Job Access With Speech software, which is the world's most popular screen reader, developed for computer users whose vision loss prevents them from seeing the screen.

One would be surprised to know, but children do play chess and caroms in specially designed boards they have. As there is no school ground, they can’t play outdoor games though. There are three visually challenged teachers and three other teachers who teach various subjects to the kids. There are three chefs, two watchmen, one office boy and a mobiliser, who take care of other duties.

The school is well monitored using CCTV cameras, which are played in the cell phone of Lakshmi, Prabhakar’s elder daughter, who herself is a Hindi government school teacher in Jinnaram. Though the school and hostel are not funded by the government, generous donations from individuals (mostly Prabhakar’s well-settled students), have helped him setup the school. Food and other essential items come from local donations.

However, Prabhakar agrees that paying salaries to teachers and staff is an issue of concern. He uses anywhere between Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 out of his Rs 37,000 pension to pay salaries to teachers. He himself teaches there. The school has applied to Rajiv Vidya Mission for financial support, which is still pending. As per a survey done in 12 mandals across Medak by Prabhakar, he has found that there were about 180 visually challenged children, who were not being sent to schools by their parents.

He also feels that though there was 1 per cent reservation in government jobs for visually challenged, they were not being implemented properly, mostly because many of the jobs like announcer jobs in bus stand and railway stations, music and arts teachers in government schools and other positions were removed now, leaving only jobs like lower departmental clerks, record assistants, teachers and officer subordinate positions left for them.

He hopes the government takes steps to create employment in endowments department and reinstates music and arts teachers into government schools just like before. He envisions more visually challenged students becoming teachers, professors, administrators and artists. He has received appreciation from the State government for his social services on Telangana Formation Day in 2015.

By Vivek Bhoomi