HYDERABAD:  For the first time in Telangana, a contingent of visually challenged students will be participating in a Republic Day parade. A team of 50 visually students - 26 girls and 24 boys - of Nethra Vidyalaya junior and degree colleges have been training for the last few days at  Parade Ground in Secunderabad ahead of their participation in the Republic Day Parade to be held at the same venue later this month. 

It was in August last year that these students first participated in a march past in their college on the occasion of Independence Day, said Krishna Kumari, a committee member at the Nethra Vidyalaya junior and degree colleges, that are run by the Jeeyar Educational Trust.
The college made a CD of the march past and sent it to the National Cadet Corps (NCC) Directorate in Hyderabad. Impressed, the NCC gave the students an opportunity to participate in the NCC Day celebrations in November last year. Then the Nethra Vidyalaya approached Telangana government officials and asked them to give their students an opportunity to participate in the Republic Day parade this year. Just last week, the college received an official communication confirming the participation of its students in the Republic Day parade. 

G Shiva Kumar, a physical trainer at Nethra Vidyalaya, said: “Training visually challenged students is in no way different than training students who can see. They have been performing great during the rehearsals.”
Source: http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/hyderabad/2019/jan/22/visually-challenged-to-march-past-on-r-day-1928337.html