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Monday 1 July 2013

Batting for the Blind : Bangladesh

“Love is the most beautiful of all feelings, specially when it is for your motherland,” reads visually impaired Lata from the ‘History of the Liberation War’ written by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal.
She is able to read this book because it is imprinted in the Braille system that the blind can read by touch.

But such books are few and far between.

So as her fellow-inmates at the ‘Right to Survive’ Centre surround her to hear what she is reading out, the irony dawns loud and clear.

The visually impaired love to read because that it is their only way to feel the world around them but they rarely get enough to read.




At the 'Right to Survive’, with its 50 visually-impaired inmates, the arrival of a book in Braille sparks celebrations, says teacher Ruby Biswas, herself visually impaired.

“Four or five of them read the book together. But such books are very scarce,” Biswas told bdnews24.com.

Visually impaired children need Braille books that have texts in the form of arranged dots that children read with feel and touch.

But these books are rare and expensive.

The first Braille book in Bangla is ‘Charar Tale Monta Dole’ – a rhyme book for the children.

It is written and published by Nazia Zabin, founder of a volunteer group ‘Braille Corner’.

“There are a good number of visually challenged people in this country,” Zabin told bdnews24.com. “They do not just want to read textbooks. They are keen to read the likes of Humayun Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal.”

“But there is no real effort to fulfil what they want."

She said, ‘Braille Corner’, founded in 2009, have been regularly joining the Ekushey Book Fairs. That has led to some response.

‘Sahittya Prakash’ proprietor Mafidul Hoque was the first to come forward by publishing some Braille-method books.

Gradually Zafar Iqbal, Ferdousi Majumde and publishers like Pratik Prakashan stepped in to fill the void.

Zabin said the publishers are discouraged to go in for Braille publishing because of the high cost of production.

“Maybe this is why only two publishers have responded in the last five years.”

She said that her institution had decided to set up Braille-book libraries in some schools and urged everyone for help. “The government should also come forward.”

‘Pratik Prakashan’ proprietor Alamgir Rahman told bdnews24.com they wanted every visually impaired to read books. “It is not only our business, but also a social duty.”

“Other publishers and writers should contribute,” he said. “When I went to late Humayun Ahmed to seek his permission for publishing in Braille his ‘Botol Bhut’ (one of his children books), he agreed instantly. He told me to go ahead with other books as wellif I wanted to.”

Bangla Academy Director General Shamsuzzaman Khan told bdnews24.com that Braille-book publishers will be given special preference during allotment of stalls for Ekushey Book Fair.

The government does publish some Braille-system textbooks for state-run primary schools, but hardly enough in numbers. Many schools are yet to get these books in June, though half the educational term is over past.

But the worst is that the state is not venturing into Braille publishing beyond text books.

There has not been an official count on the number of visually impaired population in Bangladesh, alleged Mohammad Rasel, an employee of ‘Sightsavers’ – a charity institution of UK-based Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind.

“However, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) about 15 percent of the total population are handicapped. Approximately 1.35 percent people in Bangladesh are visually challenged,” he told bdnews24.com.

The number turns out to be more than 300,000.

Syed Bashir adds from Kolkata:

In what could be a a bonanza for the tens of thousands of visually impaired whose mother tongue is Bangla, a Kolkata-based charitable trust has taken up publishing some of the top classics of Bengali literature in Braille systems.

The trust,"Third Eye" is publishing in Braille Tagore's 'Sanchaita", Bibhuti Bhusan Bandopadhyay's "Pather Panchali" , Jibanando Das's "Banalata Sen" Blaia Chand Mukopadhyay's "Bonophul" , Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's "Srikanto" Satyajit Ray's "Badshahar Angti" aqnd "Gangtoke Gandogol" , Sailen Ghosh's "Arun Barun Kiranmala,Ashapurna Devi's " Kishore Bachai Golpo" and much else.

"Now most of the visually impaired patiently wait for hours for some of us to be free so that we can read from these classics for them to absorb. But when these are published in Braille, they can read it themselves," said Mahua Seth, a trustee board member of the 'Third Eye'.

She said many of the visually impaired have 'beautiful minds' which must be developed with creative impulses that good reading can generate.

"Ours is a major effort in that direction."

Social activist Shampa Sengupta says that an amendment in the Indian copyright act has made it easy for converting top classics into Braille.

"Texts are already available in Braille but what about a great beautiful world beyond the texts! That is what the visually impaired want to access," says Asif Iqbal, who lost his eyes to a genetic disorder but that did not stop him from emerging as a professional.

He is now HR Manager at Price Waterhouse Coopers.

Needless to say, the Bangla classics in Braille will be in a great demand in Bangladesh as well.



Source : bdnews24 , 30th June 2013


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