New edition of Odia calendar in Braille ready for the new year

The calendar and almanac being printed for free and will be distributed free

The New Year holds new cheer for the visually impaired in Odisha as they would be able to hold the new Odia calendar and almanac for 2015 in Braille format.

This Braille Odia calendar named ‘Braille Dina Panjhika’ is being printed in the only Braille press in the state in Berhampur.

Prakash Chandra Rath, manager of the Braille press, said they were printing this calendar and almanac for free for the Odisha Blind Foundation (OBF) and it will be distributed free. For the past five years OBF is printing it from its own funds, said Bijay Kumar Rath of OBF. Despite being visually impaired, Mr Bijay is a major social activist in Odisha and is the compiler of this Braille calendar in Odia.

These calendars are provided free to the educated visually impaired persons of the State, all schools for the blind as well as visually impaired students. Apart from the dates and days provided as per Gregorian calendar, this Odia Braille calendar also provides information about days of lunar Hindu calendar. It has information about all major festivals and ritualistic days of Odisha as well as all major national and international days.

“Through this calendar we want to increase practice of Braille reading among the visually impaired as any person has to refer to a calendar regularly,” said Mr Bijay.

Each page of this Braille calendar also includes literary excerpts of famous authors of Odisha. It also contains a special section to promote use of white cane by the visually impaired.

According to Mr Bijay and Mr Prakash, most salient feature of this Braille calendar is a four page compilation of information about major happenings in Odisha, India and the world during 2014. It is aimed at providing basic current affairs knowledge to the visually impaired, especially the students.