Land for blind girls’ hostel

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 6: With the Administration allocating five kanals of land for the Institute for the Blind, Sector 26, here, the problem ...

CHANDIGARH, JUNE 6: With the Administration allocating five kanals of land for the Institute for the Blind, Sector 26, here, the problem of providing hostel facility to the blind girls will shortly be solved. The institute will also expand the vocational courses soon to help rehabilitate the blind girls.

The step is likely to bring in major respite for the blind girls from outside the city as they had to be denied admission for basic education (till senior secondary) and vocational guidance at the institute for want of separate stay arrangements. There is no other institution of its kind in the neighbouring areas to educate and rehabilitate the blind.

Official sources said that five kanals of land had been allocated to the Institute for the Blind on 99 years lease for the construction of a girls’ hostel at the site adjacent to the main complex. The project had been hanging fire at the administrative level for the past three years.

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"Hostel facility for fifty girls would be maintained. The construction work would begin shortly after the Institute authorities get over with the procedural formalities involved in approval of the design of proposed building," sources said. Sources add that "the Institute (which has a major chunk of funding through private sources) has already collected money to the tune of Rs 35 lakh to expedite work on the project."

The Institute has a strength of 97 blind students at the moment, with 80 boys on rolls. All the 17 girls studying in the institute are day scholars and the institute has been in existence since 70s.Institute’s headmaster J.S. Jayara says: "We have had hostel accommodation for 70 boys for long, which gave an ample chance to the blind boys from the region to come to the city for education. We had no option but to refuse admission to the girls in the absence of separate hostel accommodation for them. The girls’ hostel would solve the problem to a great extent." The added benefit for the girls would be the special vocational courses which are being planned by the institute with financial help from the Chandigarh Social Welfare Advisory Board.

"The Board used to have a rehabilitation programme comprising vocational courses for the handicapped on matching grant basis till some years ago. We propose to float another scheme shortly, with one year guidance course both for the boys and girls in a batch of 20 students of senior classes first," revealed a project officer with the Advisory Board here.

As per the proposal, each blind student attending a vocational course would be given a monthly stipend of Rs 250.