Chandigarh gets sensory park for visually impaired

Chandigarh, Feb 15(ANI): 'Institute for the Blind' has created a sensory park with the help of Chandigarh administration and Municipal Corporation for the use of visually challenged persons.

This park has been built to provide a safe place for the visually impaired to walk around in a fresh environment, away from traffic and pollution.

The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh has spent 23,000 dollars to create the 0.41-acre park replicated from similar parks in Osaka, Japan.

Many aromatic herbs and medicinal plants like jasmine, lavlena, albertine, mint, neem, tulsi and bamboo have been planted here.

While creating the park, the corporation invited visually impaired children and noted their feedback and suggestions.

"If one sense organ is defective, the other senses are more developed. Here we train the visually impaired kids to use rest of their organs to the fullest. Technically it is called compensatory mechanism," said Jagannath, headmaster of the Institute for the Blind.

"In sensory garden, these kids can explore, smell and feel new things. They can share ideas and interact with the citizens of the society. In this way they will learn new things and also develop healthy relations with the community," he added.

The credit for helping the blind children in Chandigarh also goes to the Society for the Care of the Blind.

Ever since its inception in 1972, it has been actively engaged in the education, training and rehabilitation of blind children and working for the prevention of blindness.

The society runs the Institute for the Blind in Chandigarh's Sector 26 to impart educational and vocational training to the blind children.

It teaches handloom weaving, typewriting, music and Basic Computer Literacy to make them self-reliant.

"A visually impaired person doesn't have sight but has perspective. We educate the children so that they easily overcome various problems and difficulties in their life. It is our endeavor to make visually impaired children physically fit, mentally alert and emotionally well balanced," Jagannath said.

"We also ensure that their all round development takes place as we function as a recognized senior secondary school. Nothing is bigger than knowledge, no worship is greater than truth, no sorrow is bigger than night and no happiness is greater than sacrifice. Only education can make a man wise and strong," he added.

Be it creating a sensory park or providing easy talk computers, the mission is to integrate the visually impaired into the mainstream of social life.

Outfits like the Institute for the Blind aim to inspire and inculcate in the children the zeal and zest for life by ensuring equal opportunities. By Sunil Sharma (ANI)