Covid-induced darkness yet to dispel for the blind in Ludhiana

In the heart of the city stands a stately building, which at first glance appears to be an educational institute like any other. The Vocational Rehabilitation Training Centre For The Blind in Ludhiana had ad to cut down on courses offered after the Covid pandemic due to dearth of funds. Around 3,000 visually impaired students have graduated from the school, which offers classes till Class 12, over the last four decades, while 25,000 others have availed vocational training. Vocational courses bear the brunt Before Covid gripped the world, the Centre would run three one-year diplomas in computer training, telephone training and stenography, which were highly sought after as they helped the visually impaired get employed.“With the advent of mobile phones, the course in telephone training was discontinued, but computer training and stenography courses were quite in vogue, but sincethe centre reopened this year we have been unable to restart the courses due to lack of funds.” Johnson says 50 students had been studying computers, while another 20 were learning stenography and short hand before the lockdown.”We still get several enquiries, but we need qualified staff and special equipment for the visually challenged, which is not possible under the current circumstances as we have barely managed to pay our staff with the grant we received from the Centre Once donations pick up, perhaps we can resume the courses.” ‘Was tough social distancing’ “When the lockdown was imposed last year, the school relied on online classes but it was not the same in the absence of Braille and teachers mostly took verbal classes. “Of the 145 students on roll, only 40 have resumed classes since we reopened after the lockdown,” says general secretary of the school Promod Dada.