Odisha Plans To Set Up India’s First University For The Blind

Bhubaneswar: India’s first university for blind students is proposed to be set up in Odisha to provide educational and technical courses.

According to senior officials, there are more than 50 lakh blind people in the country and Odisha is home to more than 5.21 lakh of them. Around two 2 lakh youth in Odisha are reported to be blind.

Therefore, it is necessary to have a comprehensive and exclusive university for the blind to cater to their education and training needs, said Sanyasai Behera, a blind deputy secretary of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) department.

The proposed university will be named after blind poet and 19th-century social reformer Bhima Bhoi. There will also be technical schools of excellence in this university.

Notably, a delegation from Japan’s University of Tsukuba, famous for the blind, met SSEPD officials in this connection recvently. After this meeting, Behera said that a proposal in this regard will be sent soon to Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.

The plan includes residential facilities with an advanced digital lab on the university campus. SSEPD principal secretary Bishnupada Sethi said that the government is planning to set up a campus to provide education to students from class IX onwards from India and abroad.

“We will provide vocational courses like acupuncture and physiotherapy, besides policy research,” he said.