This week's guest columnist is Nidhi Goyal, the well-known activist and comedian working on disability rights and gender justice. Nidhi is the founder-director of Rising Flame, a Mumbai- based non-profit working on rights of persons with disabilities with a focus on women and youth. Her work spans research, writing, training, advocacy and art. You can follow her work @saysnidhigoyal.

BENGALURU: Inspired by a vacuum cleaner, class 7 student  Maanya Ramesh from Air Force School, Hebbal has solved the  chalk dust pollution affecting teachers and students in  classroom for ages. Her mini smart duster absorbs all the  chalk dust while erasing the blackboard. 

Visually impaired and blind voters will be provided with braille voter slips in the Lok Sabha elections due this summer.

Braille is a script with raised dots that can be read with the fingers by people who are blind or who have low vision.

It is a tactile reading and writing system used by blind and visually impaired people who cannot access print material.

In My Take, Gaurav Jhunjhunwala talks about his experiences coping with vision loss. Formerly an entrepreneur who was heading the digital vertical in a top publishing house, he is now exploring new business opportunities.

I was born in Hong Kong and had a really happy childhood full of fond memories. Looking back now I think its because it was the only period in my life where I didn’t feel I was very different to the people around me.

National Voter's day on 25 January is a day dedicated to bringing together the youth to vote and take part in the political process. This year the focus was on disabled voters across many states with Karnataka taking the
lead to introduce measures to make voting accessible to all, a major challenge given the inaccessibility of voting booths.

The district administration on Friday began distributing Braille Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) to five persons with visual disabilities at the National Voters’ Day celebration at the town hall.

Braille EPIC cards are broader compared to normal EPIC cards.

According to Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Sentil S., there are 10,331 voters in Dakshina Kannada who are physically disabled.

Of them 300 have visual disabilities and they will receive Braille EPIC cards ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
 

KOCHI: Kerala Blind School Society (KBBS), Aluva has proved that disability will not be a deterrent in achieving one's dream by bagging the overall championship once again in the state special school fair held at Kasargod. The school, established in 1962, has been winning the coveted title every year and hasn't given away the first place in the state-level band competition for the last 21 years.
The school which became aided in 1995 is managed by a governing body of an 18-member-committee constituted by the CSI Marthoma church.