National Association for the Blind (NAB) has decided to start its full-fledged activity in Bihar by opening an IT centre meant purely for
vision impaired persons at Danapur in Patna district.
Giving this information, NAB president Shantilal K Somaiya, who runs 34 institutions, including educational, hospital and cultural, in Mumbai and other parts of India, said the association is making an inroad in Bihar by coming up with an IT centre for blind persons for which Somaiya Trusts has already donated land in Danapur to the state unit of the association.
However, more activities, christened as "Ankur", of the association are in store for the state with focus on prevention of blindness in children, Somaiya said and added that of the 1.4 billion population approximately 21 million are visually impaired. What is worse is the fact that 75 per cent of this is preventable blindness and 26 per cent blind are children in the age group of 0-12 years. Rural India accounts for 80 per cent of the country's blind population.
To prevent blindness in children, it is necessary to strengthen the reach of government's programme to control blindness.
Source: Times News Network 30/Sep/2008
