Born blind in Pune, Maharashtra, Shruti Gujjar suffered at the hands of her family’s ignorance. Abandoned by her biological mother when she was only one, her stepmother considered the little girl a worthless burden. Family’s neglect led to delayed developmental milestones in Shruti, furthering her dependence on them.
In 2011, a timid young girl called the Eyeway Helpdesk from Kashmir. She asked several questions pertaining to vision impairment but was wary of giving out any personal details. Only several calls later did we figure that Qurat Khan suffered from gradual vision loss due to Retinitis Pigmentosa. Studying in Class 12, she explained her struggles in the classroom with the printed syllabus.
Blind by birth, 33-year-old Deepak Daware is the sole breadwinner of his family in Nanded district of Maharashtra.
Deepak dropped out of college, ignorant of how to continue his education with his vision impairment. He then took up menial jobs for the sake of sustenance.
Naseer Rashid lost his eye sight in an accident when he was three. A resident of the conflict ridden state of Jammu and Kashmir, where sighted students struggle to access mainstream education, Naseer’s family was unaware of ways to raise their blind child.
34-year-old Praveen Shankhdhar had a steady career in advertising before he experienced sudden sight loss. He lost his job as an Art Director, given the inability to work using visual media. Too shocked to respond, he reached out to his family.
The Eyeway Helpdesk receives 1500 to 2000 calls a month from visually impaired people across India. Most callers ask for opportunities of education and employment, government provisions and guidelines, aids and appliances, anything that will enable them to lead an independent life.
21-year-old Sandeep Kumar was born blind in Samastipur, Bihar. He struggled against all odds to study till Class 8. Schools in his district denied him admission and teachers didn’t want to waste their time on a blind boy. He was fourteen when he enrolled in a Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan camp, where he learnt to read and write in Braille. Despite his interest and hard work, his progress was stunted by lack of awareness and scant resources.
Prabhsimran Singh visited the Eyeway Helpdesk in Delhi along with his mother in the year 2018 seeking career guidance. The twenty-five-year-old from Gurugram, Haryana is visually impaired since his childhood and has completed his BA (H) in Hindi from Delhi University. Born into a middle-class family, his father is a businessman and mother is a private school teacher. Growing up he felt overprotected by his mother, who also constantly compared him to other children in the family. This left him under-confident.
39-year-old Kiran from Kerala was forced to leave his high paying job in the Gulf when he gradually began to lose his sight due to Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic eye disorder. A computer hardware engineer by profession, Kiran came back to India as he could not cope with the demands of the job with 75% vision loss.
Everything was going perfectly for thirty-one-year-old Sudhir Kumar from Jehanabad, Bihar. Married and father to three children, he worked as an accountant to fend for his family. This short-lived secured life ended when he was prescribed medication by the doctor for an eye irritation that reacted adversely, causing sudden vision loss. After extensive and prolonged treatment, the doctor could only restore 20 % of his vision. During this period, he had to let go of his job causing financial distress to the family.
The discrimination against blind and visually impaired children starts right from their homes. Considered of no value by their parents, they are hardly invested into. And attention and preference is often given to their sighted siblings.
Born sighted into a middle-class family, twenty-three-year-old Anil Mhaske from Paithan, Aurangabad gradually began to lose his sight at the age of four. He was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder of the eyes that causes loss of vision. His parents, however, enrolled him in a mainstream Marathi medium school.
21-year-old Loknath hails from Durg, Chhattisgarh. Born blind by birth into a poor family, he managed to study only till class 8 through Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, Government of India’s flagship programme making education free and compulsory to children between 6 and14 years.. With SSA’s special focus on education of children with special needs, he was able to learn braille during his time in the school.
Diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa at the age of 6, Shobha Patil from Gadag district of Karnataka is left with only 25% vision. Rising above her disability, she continued to study and completed her Master’s degree in Commerce.
While he was still a student of grade 12, Monu Kumar heard about Eyeway in a message broadcast on All India Radio. Little did he know that one day Eyeway would become a source of constant support and guidance for him.
20-year-old Garv Sabharwal has been mostly dependent on his mother for decision making in every aspect of his life after he lost his vision in grade 6. With the guidance from National Association for the Blind (NAB), his parents were able to apply for a Disability certificate that helped him complete his Class 12 from a mainstream school. At NAB, he also underwent a basic computer training and a short advanced programme.
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