No Braille books, now power cuts impact visually-impaired

BIRGUNJ, Feb 27: She has no idea about what light is. Blind since childhood, she already has to face a mountain of difficulties.



Now, prolonged power cut hours too have severely affected Anju Dhital. [break]



"Since the government could not provide us with Braille books, I have been relying on tape recorder," says this student of Dumarwana Higher Secondary School. "But due to load-shedding I have been deprived of even this mode of learning."



Due to unavailibility of Braille books, Anju, who is preparing for secondary-level School Leaving Certificate (SLC) examination this year has been getting the contents of her friends´ books recorded in a voice recorder and listening to it. Until power cuts hit her hard.



The 10th grader had always stood first in her class even though she studies with the help of Braille books.






Not this time though. She could not repeat her performance in the Test examination for the SLC.



"Power cuts are sudden and erratic and I cannot afford to buy batteries to use in the tape recorder," she says. "That is why I stood third."



Anju, however, is confident of getting first division marks in the SLC. Her friends help her by reading out loud the contents of the book.



Besides Anju, there are 18 other students without eyesight who are facing additional difficulties since the government has not been able to provide books in Braille. Prolonged load-shedding has only made the situation worse.



"Even though we have to make do without light, we need electricity," another student says.



The problem is not only of this school. Lack of books in Braille and increasing load-shedding hours have made life of visually-impaired very difficult. They have been gradually beginning to use electronic devices like cell phones and computers but power cuts have begun to make these devices out of their reach.



"Due to lack of Braille books, the visually impaired have been using CDs to learn," says Krishna Timilsina, Bara chapter president of the Nepal Association of the Blind. "But load-shedding has made even this difficult."