Aniruddha's Bank for the Blind
A person’s thirst for learning new things in life never ever gets quenched. Through the medium of our sense organs viz. the eyes, nose, ears and touch there is a constant intake of information and learning from the environment. If however, one important sense organ refuses its companionship, then the other sense organs fill up the void. In the case of a sightless person, the senses of touch and sound play all the more important role.
Despite their lives being so difficult, they continue with their efforts, are fearless in surmounting obstacles and continue their efforts with a smile and with cheerfulness.
As the name suggests, this is a bank but one that stands out from the rest. This is a knowledge bank that stores knowledge in the form of CDs for the benefit of the visually challenged. CDs based on academic curricular are prepared and given to visually challenged students of various blind schools and colleges.
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The curriculum of technical courses viz. lathe training as also curriculum related to Physiotherapy and Banking exam is recorded on CDs. So far, the material has been distributed in 22 states and 5 Union territories in India. In addition to these, cassettes, and later CDs, have been delivered to beneficiaries in Karachi, Pakistan. The CDs are prepared in different languages depending on the requirement. Volunteers, primarily ladies, record the CDs sitting at home, which gives them an ideal opportunity to balance home and work, and, in the process, get a sense of fulfilment. To date, this project has reached out to the needs of reputed charitable institutions for the visually challenged, such as 'The Kamala Mehta School for the Blind' and 'The Victoria School for the Blind'. So far, more than 30,721 cassettes and 15,735 CDs have been distributed to various schools and institutions across India and abroad, free of cost. The curriculum has been recorded on CDs and cassettes in 11 Indian languages, not only for school going students but also for people pursuing post-graduate and vocational courses.
From July 2004 till November 2016, 33,099 visually impaired students have benefitted by the service provided by Aniruddha's Bank for the Blind. Shree Aniruddha Upasana Foundation, through its 800 odd centres and thousands of volunteers, in coordination with Shree Aniruddha Aadesh Pathak and Aniruddha Samarpan Pathak are striving to achieve the ultimate objective of Samartha Bharat – a strong and self-reliant India.
As of 2017, there are approximately 3.75 crore individuals worldwide, who are blind. In India, the number of blind people is about 1.5 crore. The number of blind students amongst this is close to 30 lakhs in India. It is a daunting task for these students to educate themselves.
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