With a view to reaching over 20,000 visually impaired persons across the country,Reliance Foundation on Monday launched the first registered Braille Hindi newspaper in India Reliance Drishti. The first edition of the paper was launched at the Kamla Mehta School for the Blind by foundation chairperson Nita Ambani on Monday. Swagat Thorat,the founder of Sparshdnyan a fortnightly Marathi periodical in Braille,is the editor-in-chief of Reliance Drishti. In practically every Indian household,mornings are synonymous with a hot cup of tea and the newspaper. But no one had really thought about the thousands of visually impaired people in the country who were deprived of this basic facility. When my efforts for Sparshdnyan were recognised last year,I felt the need to reach out to more people apart from the Marathi speaking community. Right after I discussed my intention with Nita Ambani,a dedicated team from the Reliance Foundation was appointed to make Reliance Drishti meet its first deadline of a March edition, Thorat said. Reliance Drishti will be published on the first and third Monday of every month and will be circulated free of cost through 325 institutions working with the visually impaired in the country. Each edition will have a small section of current news along with analytical pieces discussing politics,foreign affairs,business,sports,science and technology,arts and health. With todays fast paced life,access to information is integral and an information divide is unacceptable. A large load of the worlds visually impaired population lies in the developing counties and there is no reason for this section of the society to be deprived of knowledge because of their physical handicap. Reliance Drishti is the first and a modest step in helping in the empowerment of the visually impaired, Nita Ambani said.
