Odisha’s Khurda To Have World-Class Lab For Blind Students

Bhubaneswar: A world-class laboratory for visually impaired students will soon come up at the Integrated Infrastructure Complex (IIC) in Odisha’s Khurda which is being set up to provide social security to children with special needs and senior citizens.

This was decided at a review meeting on the progress of IICs in ten districts of  Khurda, Cuttack, Puri, Kandhamal, Sambalpur, Bhadrak, Malkangiri, Sundargarh, Ganjam and Nabarangpur, sources said.

They said the review meeting was held recently by Commissioner of the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) Department Bhaskar Sarma. The IICs are being implemented by the department under the Odisha Government’s  5T initiative.

The state government had last year approved the construction of the IICs in 18 districts in the first phase. These centres will have old age homes and special schools for visually impaired and hearing impaired students.

While some of the centres are under construction, the ones in Khurda, Ganjam, Sambalpur and Kandhamal are expected to be made operational by the end of this month.

With an aim to provide better learning materials to visually-impaired students who would be enrolled at the IIC in Khurda, reading devices and equipment like Kindle will be provided to each such student.

This apart, a single window portal will be developed for maintaining the records of all agencies and NGOs, teaching as well as non-teaching staff and students of special schools in the IICs.

There are plans to upgrade the IICs as ‘Centres of Excellence’. IICs will have adequate sports facilities, cultural centres and other facilities for extra-curricular activities for the overall development of children with special needs and also for senior citizens.