The National Association for the Blind (NAB) Sabita and Saradindu Basu Centre for visually impaired women at Hauz Khas, is not a typical centre that one imagines a school for the disabled to be.
This is a cozy home, where visually impaired women are empowered, rehabilitated and educated. There is no room for empathy here, as the students, with varying degrees of visual impairment, have only one vision — to complete their day’s work with diligence. So, one finds students busy at their workstations, tapping away at the keyboards.
The Centre, established in 2002 on the land donated by late Saradindu Basu whose wife Sabita had lost her eyesight due to old age, reverberates with energy and enthusiasm. “It was meant to be a dedicated place to assure parents that their girls were in the right hands,” says Shalini Khanna, director. “Visually impaired girls have always been disadvantaged, with fears of social abuse and violence restricting their mobility and confidence. They are often the last on a parent’s priority list, and in the rural belt, their education is considered to be a liability, since they are unlikely to get a suitable match,” says Shalini.
A unit of the NAB, the Centre offers training to both educated and uneducated visually impaired women, helping them acquire professional skills to get absorbed into the workforce, or take up higher education by joining reputed universities. Some are even encouraged to resume their careers after a gap triggered by their disability.
The Centre provides a wide range of facilities ranging from counselling to cope with social and emotional impact of vision loss to providing educational material and special devices, scholarships, volunteer support and career counselling. Girls from far flung villages of Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan,
Himachal Pradesh, Bihar,
Madhya Pradesh,
Uttar Pradesh, and closer home Delhi-NCR, find a shelter here. They learn skills to earn a living and lead a dignified life.
On the academic front, Shalini says, “DU has been encouraging towards the girls. With 20 or more students in several DU colleges, the choices are increasing. Earlier, subjects offered were limited to History, Political Science and Music, but we pushed for a Master’s in International Relations and a Master’s in Social Work at TISS and DSW.”
Reena Bhatia from Shimla who studied computers here now works as a CA with Ernest & Young, while Amrita from Alwar, who learnt computer and life skills at the Centre, is now a probationary officer at the State Bank of Patiala. Neetu Garg from Hapur trained at the Centre in spa therapy to become a spa masseur at Payu Money Gurgaon. These are only some of the success stories from the Centre.
The professional training includes Customer Relationship Management, hand training for
breast cancer detection, Japanese therapy for pain relief massage, handicraft packaging and training and home science and café management.
Life skills development to improve mobility, braille, house keeping and cooking; and personality development for communication, grooming sessions, hobby classes, theatre activities etc also make the girls self-reliant. Presently, the Centre houses 8-10 teachers some of whom are blind while others are partially blind or with normal eyesight.
