This Bengaluru Couple Makes Railway Stations Better For The Visually Impaired!

Diwakar was very excited to visit his hometown to meet his family. He was supposed to board his train from Mysuru Railway station. He waited for almost three hours at the railway platform only to find out that the train had left on time but from a different platform.

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Being visually impaired, he had no access to the indicator that flashed the platform number for his train, and he missed out the announcement in the cacophony of sounds around him. The incident left him agitated as he had failed to meet his family during the holidays.

He called his close friend, Pancham Cajla, to convey his sadness.

This was in August 2015.

Three months later, Mysuru Railway station grabbed eyeballs for becoming the first blind-friendly railway station in India.

Sounds like a magical story, doesn’t it?

Well, it is and a little beyond that!

When Pancham, a mechanical engineer and a former Infosys employee, tried to calm his friend down it was to no avail. Pancham, the man behind India’s first blind-friendly railway station tells The Better India (TBI),

Anureen, a teacher at Blind School, Mysuru, says, “I love to travel alone. This initiative has helped solo women travellers like me since we don’t have to depend on others to ask for directions all the time.”

Following Mysuru, the team converted the Borivali station in Mumbai and Bengaluru station too.

Travelling in a Mumbai local is not as easy for a blind commuter. We get pushed and misguided. People usually don’t have the time and patience to guide us. We mostly end up missing our trains and at times meet with accidents. This project will bring big relief to blind commuters, says Sagar Patil, an entrepreneur from Mumbai.

The NGO has also been instrumental in converting the Mysuru-Varanasi Express(16229/16230), into blind-friendly. The Braille-embedded train runs between Mysuru and Varanasi. 

Mysuru Member of Parliament Pratap Simha, through his Member of Parliament Local Area Development Fund, funded the initiative.

The NGO is now working on 14 railway stations to make it blind-friendly.

Empowering The Blind Community

Besides, making the stations blind-friendly, the NGO also conducts awareness sessions in schools, corporates and public offices to sensitise people. Most of the projects undertaken by Anurprayas were funded through Corporate Social Responsibility, donations and crowdfunding. The NGO is now moving towards becoming self-sustainable.

It has now started selling merchandise called BrailleMate, and proceedings go towards emancipating the visually impaired.

Most of our merchandise is sold post the awareness sessions. The visually impaired handle the stalls. We give them training in basic marketing skills. They get very few opportunities to interact with people. We are breaking this via our merchandise like t-shirts, posters and so on with braille prints, says Shakti.

Adil, a Sales Intern at Anuprayaas, says, “I am thankful to Anuprayaas for providing me with an opportunity where I can go out and communicate with so many people. Before this, I had never had much interaction with people. It has helped me build my confidence.”

Every time you buy Anuprayaas product, the proceedings from the sales are utilised to make schools and public spaces blind-friendly. Check out their products at The Better India shop here. 

Get in touch with the NGO here.

(Edited by Saiqua Sultan)

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